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THE 



ENGLISH OF SHAKESPEARE 

* 



ILLUSTRATED IX 



.-H 




JULIUS CESAR. 



GEOKGE LfCEAlK, 

»r 

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 1N 
queen's COLLEGE, EELFAST. 



THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED. 



LONDON: 

CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 

1864. 



PR367Z 
.C? 



Library of Congress 
By transfer from 
?.,3ar' r:v: r t, 

MAY 3 1 1327 



JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS. 



CONTENTS. 



Fage 



Prolegomena. 

Shakespeare's Personal History .... 1 

Shakespeare's Works ...... 3 

The Sources for the Text of Shakespeare's Plays . 9 
The Shakespearian Editors and Commentators . 25 
The Modern Shakespearian Texts . . .27 

The Mechanism of English Verse, and the Prosody 
of the Plays of Shakespeare . . . .30 

Shakespeare's Julius Ccesar . . . .44 

Philological Commentary, with Text or the 

Plat , . . 61 



PREFACE. 



Itf this attempt to illustrate the English oe Shake- 
speare, I would be understood to have had a twofold 
purpose, in conformity with the title of the volume, 
which would naturally be taken to promise something of 
exposition in regard both to the language or style of 
Shakespeare and to the English Language generally. 

My first business I have considered to be the cor- 
rect exhibition and explanation of the noble work of 
our great dramatist with which the volume professes to 
be specially occupied. I will begin, therefore, by stating 
what I have done, or endeavoured to do, for the Play of 
Julius C-esab. 

I have given what I believe to be a more nearly au- 
thentic Text than has yet appeared. Julius Ccesar is, 
probably, of all Shakespeare's Plays, the one of which the 
text has come down to us in the least unsatisfactory 
state. Eroru whatever cause it has happened, the pas- 
sages in this Play as to the true reading of which there 
can be much reasonable doubt are, comparatively, very 
few. Even when anything is wrong in the original 
edition, the manner in which it is to be set to rights is 
for the most part both pretty obvious and nearly certain. 
There are perhaps scarcely so many as half-a-dozen lines 
of any importance which must be given up as hopelessly 
incurable or even doubtful. It is, I should think, of all 



vi PBEFACE. 

the Plays, by much the easiest to edit ; both the settle- 
ment of the text and its explanation are, I conceive, 
simpler than would be the case in any other ; and it is 
for that reason partly that I have selected it for the pre- 
sent attempt. 

The alterations which I have found it necessary to 
make upon the commonly received text do not amount 
to very many; and the considerations by which I have 
been guided are in every instance fully stated in the 
Commentary. The only conjectural innovations which I 
have ventured upon of my own are, the change of "What 
night is this?" into "What a night is this!" in the 
speech numbered 117 ; the insertion of " not" after " Has 
he," in that numbered 402 ; and the transposition of the 
two names Lucilms and Lucius in that numbered 521. 
The first and second of these three corrections are of 
little moment, though both, I think, clearly required; 
the third I hold to be both of absolute certainty and 
necessity, and also of considerable importance, affecting 
as it does the whole course of the Fourth Act of the Play, 
restoring propriety and consistency to the conduct of the 
action and the parts sustained by the various personages, 
and vindicating a reading of the Pirst Polio in a subse- 
quent speech (571) which, curiously enough, had never 
been previously noticed by anybody, but has been silently 
ignored and departed from even by those of the modern 
editors who have professed to adhere the most scru- 
pulously to that original text. 

Por the rest, the present text differs in nothing ma- 
terial from that which is found in all the modern editions, 
unless it be that I have restored from the Pirst Polio 
one or two antiquated forms, — such as 9 em for them, and 
moe in several places for more, — which have been usually 
suppressed, although 'em remains familiar enough in our 



PEEPACE. Til 

colloquial speech, or at any rate is still perfectly intelli- 
gible and unambiguous, and moe is sometimes the only 
form that will suit the exigencies of the verse. 

A merely mechanical innovation in the typographical 
exhibition of the text will at once catch the eye. The 
present is, I suppose, the first edition of a Play, in 
any language, with the speeches numbered. Possibly 
it may be the first time that any one has thought of 
counting the speeches in a Play.* In that case, the re- 
sult arrived at, that there are about eight hundred separ- 
ate utterances, or divisions of the dialogue, long and 
short, in the drama here examined, may be received as 
one of some little curiosity and interest. At any rate, 
such a method as I have adopted seems to afford the only 
available means for distinct and expeditious reference. 
It has a double advantage over the mere pagination ; first, 
inasmuch as a speech is usually much shorter than a 
page, and, secondly, inasmuch as the division into speeches 
is the same for all editions. The only other plan that 
has been, or that, apparently, can be taken, is to make 
shift with the ordinary division into Acts and Scenes. 
This is what has been commonly done in the various 
verbal indexes to Shakespeare. But to be told simply 



* Since the first publication of the present work, however, Mr J. 
A. Ellis has obligingly forwarded to me copies of editions of Shake- 
speare's Tempest and Macbeth, in what is called the Phonetic spell- 
ing, brought out under his care at London in 1849, in which the 
speeches in each Scene are separately numbered for the purpose of re- 
ference in the notes, mostly explanatory, but sometimes critical or 
conjectural, appended at the foot of the page. But, besides that there 
is no general summation, the text of Shakespeare is not fully given 
in these editions, so that even the process of adding up the speeches 
in the several scenes would not give us the entire number in the Play. 
The plan of one continuous enumeration throughout would seem to 
be simpler and more convenient for all purposes. 



Till PREFACE . 

that a word or phrase which we are in search of occurs 
in a certain Scene of one of Shakespeare's Plays is in 
most cases only a degree better than being told that it 
may be found somewhere within the compass of the Play. 
"We may be often half an hour in finding it. The Scenes 
in Shakespeare (the notation of which, by the bye, is for 
the most part the work of his modern editors) continually 
run out to dimensions which make this kind of reference 
a mere tantalizing and tormenting mockery. In any 
liberally printed library edition, such as those of Mr 
Knight or Mr Collier, with a very small proportion of 
the space taken up by foot-notes, it is not unusual to find 
that the Scene to which we have been directed extends 
over twenty or thirty pages. Even in the present edition 
of Julius Ccesar, compactly printed as it is, several of the 
Scenes cover seven or eight pages. In the entire Play, 
filling about sixty pages, there are only eighteen Scenes, 
so that the average throughout is considerably above 
three pages for each. Even Jennens's more scientific 
division gives us only twenty-six Scenes for this Play, 
making an average of above two of our pages for each ; and 
that of Hanmer, which Warburton follows, and which is 
the most minute that has been proposed, gives us only 
thirty-seven, each therefore extending over a space of not 
much less than two of our pages on an average. This is 
the utmost amount of definiteness attainable by the 
system of reference to Scenes. The enumeration of the 
speeches reduces the average space which a reference in- 
cludes to about the thirteenth part of a page. As there 
are about eight hundred speeches in the Play, and only 
eighteen Scenes (according to the common division), it 
follows that the one method of reference must be on the 
whole between forty and fifty times more precise, and 
consequently more serviceable, than the other. 



PKEFACE. 



Mrs Cowden Clarke's Concordance to SJiaJcspere is 
a noble monument of the fair compiler's loving patience 
and carefulness ; its correctness, especially when we take 
into account the multitude of mere figures and symbols 
which there was nothing in the sense or the context to 
protect from perversion, is wonderful ; it would be hard 
to name a printed volume either of more difficult or of 
more faultless execution ; it is rare to find a single figure 
or letter wrong ; it may be questioned if any equally 
elaborate work, literary or of any other kind, so remark- 
able for exactness and freedom from error, ever before 
proceeded from the female head or hand; even as it 
stands, it is invaluable, and in a manner indispensable, 
for critical purposes. But it is much to be wished that 
before it was undertaken there had existed an edition of 
the Plays with the speeches numbered throughout, as in 
the present edition of the Julius Caesar, to which it might 
have been accommodated. We should in that case have 
found whatever we might seek by its assistance in about 
a fiftieth part of the average time that it now takes us. # 



* What is stated in the above paragraph will explain my prefer- 
ence for the plan of enumeration I have adopted over that subsequently 
employed by Herr Karl Elze in his edition of Hamlet (in the original 
English), with notes in German, published at Leipzig, in 1857. He 
has simply divided each page of the Play into so many paragraphs of 
equal, or nearly equal, length (he makes 241 of them in all) ; and, in a 
complimentary reference to my book, which had reached him while 
his own was passing through the press, he observes that I had made 
an attempt to furnish a similar indispensable requisite for the philo- 
logical study of Shakespeare : — "einen Yersuch hierzu hat allerdings 
ganz kiirzlich Professor Craik in Belfast gemacht." It will be seen 
that Herr Elze's method would not serve the more general purpose 
which I had in view. I have not seen Meyer's edition of the Julius 
Ccesar which he notices as having been published at Hamburg in the 
same year 1857, and the numbering in which he says is quite useless, 
inasmuch as it does not admit of being transferred to other editions. 



X PREFACE. 

As for the present Commentary on the Play of Julius 
Ccesar, it will be perceived that it does not at all aspire 
to what is commonly distinguished as the higher criticism. 
It does not seek to examine or to expound this Shake- 
spearian drama aesthetically, but only philologically, or 
with respect to the language. The only kind of criticism 
which it professes is what is called verbal criticism. Its 
whole aim, in so far as it relates to the particular work 
to which it is attached, is, as far as may be done, first to 
ascertain or determine the text, secondly to explain it ; 
to inquire, in other words, what Shakespeare really 
wrote, and how what he has written is to be read and 
construed. 

"Wherever either the earliest text or that which is com- 
monly received has been deviated from to the extent of a 
word or a syllable, the alteration has been distinctly in- 
dicated. In this way a complete representation is given, 
in so far at least as regards the language, both of the 
text of the editio princeps and of the textus receptus. I 
have not sought to register with the same exactness the 
various readings of the other texts, ancient and modern ; 
but I believe, nevertheless, that all will be found to be 
noted that are of any interest either in the Second Folio 
or among the conjectures of the long array of editors 
and commentators extending from Eowe to our own 
day. 

Then, with regard to the explanation of the text : — 
I confess that here my fear is rather that I shall be 
thought to have done too much than too little. But I 
have been desirous to omit nothing that any reader 
might require for the full understanding of the Play, 
in so far as I was able to supply it. I have even re- 
tained the common schoolboy explanations of the few 
points of Roman antiquities to which allusions occur, 



PREFACE. XI 

such as the arrangements of the Calendar, the usages 
of the Lupercalia, etc. The expression, however, is what 
I have chiefly dwelt upon. The labours of scores of 
expositors, embodied in hundreds of volumes, attest the 
existence in the writings of Shakespeare of numerous 
words, phraseologies, and passages the import of which 
is, to say the least, not obvious to ordinary readers of 
the present day. This comes partly from certain cha- 
racteristics of his style, which would probably have made 
him occasionally a difficult author in any circumstances ; 
but much more from the two facts, of the corrupted or 
at least doubtful state of the text in many places, and 
the changes that our national speech has undergone 
since his age. The English of the sixteenth century is 
in various respects a different language from that of 
the nineteenth. The words and constructions are not 
throughout the same, and when they are they have not 
always the same meaning. Much of Shakespeare's vo- 
cabulary has ceased to fall from either our lips or our pens ; 
much of the meaning which he attached to so much of 
it as still survives has dropt out of our minds. "What is 
most misleading of all, many words and forms have ac- 
quired senses for us which they had not for him. All 
such cases that the Play presents I have made it my 
object to notice. Wherever there seemed to be any 
risk of the true meaning being mistaken, I have, in as 
few words as possible, stated what I conceived it to be. 
Where it was not clear to myself, I have frankly confessed 
my inability to explain it satisfactorily. 

In so far as the Commentary relates to the particular 
Play which it goes over, and professes to elucidate, it is 
intended to be as complete as I could make it, in the 
sense of not leaving any passage unremarked upon 
which seemed to be difficult or obscure. But, of course, 



Xll PREFACE. 

it puts forward no pretensions to a similar completeness, 
or thoroughness, in respect of any further purpose. It 
is far from embracing the whole subject of the English of 
Shakespeare, or making any attempt to do so. It is 
merely an introduction to that subject. In the Pro- 
legomena, nevertheless, I have sought to lay a foundation 
for the full and systematic treatment of an important de- 
partment of it in the exposition which is given of some 
principles of our prosody, and some peculiarities of 
Shakespeare's versification, which his editors have not 
in general sufficiently attended to. Such investigations 
are, I conceive, full of promise of new light in regard 
to the history both of the Plays and of the mind of their 
author. 

Still less can the Commentary pretend to any com- 
pleteness in what it may contain in reference to the 
history and constitution of the language generally, or of 
particular classes of words and constructions. Among 
the fragments, or specimens, however — for they can be 
nothing more — which occur in it of this kind of specula- 
tion are a few which will be found, perhaps, to carry out 
the examination of a principle, or the survey of a group 
of connected facts, farther than had before been done; 
such as those in the notes on Merely (45), on Its (54), 
on Shrew and Shrewd (186), on Statue (246), on Deliver 
(348), on the prefix Be (390), on The in combination 
with a comparative (675), etc.* 

* I may add a remark on the word business, noticed in 496. 
Whether our busy be or be not the same with the German bose, signi- 
fying zvicked (even as both wicked and weak have been supposed to be 
identical with quick, — Vid. 267), and whatever maybe the origin of 
the French besogne and besoin, and the Italian bisogna and bisog?io, 
there can, I conceive, be no doubt that our business, which never (at 
least in modern English) means the condition or quality of being busy, 
is really nothing more than the French besoins or besognes, formerly 



PEEP ACE. Xlll 

This new edition has been revised throughout with the 
greatest care ; and it will be found to present a consider- 
able number of alterations, additions, and improvements 
as compared with the former. A difference between the 
two conspicuous at first sight is that the Text of the 
Play is now much more conveniently placed for all the 
purposes of such a book by being incorporated with the 
Commentary.^ 

busoignes, — as, for example, in the Stat, of the 25th. of Edward I. 
(Confirmatio Chartarum) : — "les aides e les raises les queles il nous 
uht fait avaunt ces houres pur nos guerres e autres busoignes ;" or in 
an answer of Edward III. to Archbishop Stratford in 1341 : — " Queu 
chose le Eoi ottreia. Mes il dit, q'il voleit que les busoignes touchantes 
l'estat du Roialme et commune profit fussent primes mys en exploit, et 
puis il ferroit exploiter les autres" (Rot. Par. II. 127). The ness, 
therefore, is here not the substantival affix, but merely a misrepresenta- 
tion of the final letters of the word in its plural form. " Go about your 
business" is go about your (own) needs, occasions, affairs. "We speak 
of the busy bee, and of a busy man, or a man who is busy, but we do 
not (now at least) call the condition or the natural quality the busi- 
ness of either the man or of the bee. "What we understand by a man's 
business is (grammatically or logically) something of the same kind, not 
with his goodness, but rather with his goods. The irregular or ex- 
ceptional pronunciation of the word business would alone indicate some 
peculiarity of origin or formation. Business, pronounced in two syl- 
lables, is evidently not a word of the same kind with heaviness, for in- 
stance, pronounced in three. 

* I have retained, it will be observed, in speech 363 the emendation 
of Mr Collier's MS. annotator — "A curse shall light upon the loins of 
men." But since this part of the volume has been printed off I con- 
fess that I have, although at first very much opposed to it, been more 
and more impressed, the more I consider it, in favour of a new reading 
for which a strong case has been made out, and urged upon my 
attention, by a distinguished literary friend, — "A curse shall fall 
upon these impious men." In the first place, on looking at the 
passage, every reader will, I think, be struck with something incon- 
gruous and improbable in the denunciation here of a corse upon 
men generally, — upon the whole human race, — let it be regarded with 
reference whether to the occasion, and to the circumstances on which 
Antony founds it, or to the calamities about to fall merely upon Italy 



XIV PEEFACE. 



Although very much disinclined to depart from estab- 
lished usage in such a matter as mere expression, I have 



to which the prophecy immediately narrows itself. It is an exordium 
followed up by no adequate amplification or specification, but rather 
the contrary. These men — the murderers of his friend Caesar — and not 
either the limbs or the loins of mankind universally — must, one would 
say, have been uppermost at such a moment in his mind and in his im- 
passioned words. Without something more, however, such general 
considerations as this would hardly entitle us to touch the passage. 
There would be no end of conjectural emendation if it were permitted 
us, in the text of Shakespeare or of any other writer, to disturb an au- 
thorized or accepted reading on no other ground than that it might, 
as we may think, be improved. This is the sort of wild disor- 
ganizing work with which so many would be reformers and restorers, 
male and female, busy themselves, without so much as a suspicion, in 
many cases, of the nature of a single canon or principle of critical 
science, or that such a science exists. But here, secondly, we 
have, almost universally admitted, what is the almost indispensable 
preliminary to any attempt at emendation, — a manifest flaw in the 
ordinary reading. " Limbs of men " pleases nobody, or hardly any- 
body. Thirdly and lastly, then — for, if that can be made out, nothing 
more in the way of mere conjecture is possible, — can it be shown to be at 
ail probable that the supposed words " these impious men," if written 
by Shakespeare, would or might have been mistaken by the printer of 
the First Folio for what he has given us — "the limbs of men?" It is 
not necessary to assume that he has adhered to the exact spelling of 
what he believed himself to have before him in his copy or manuscript. 
What he set up as "the limbs of" may have seemed to him to be 
written "the Limbes of." Only, now, suppose farther that the writing 
was somewhat close or crowded, or rather that it appeared to him to 
be so, and it would not be very unlikely that what he took for a " the " 
followed by a capital L, with its final curve running possibly below the 
line, was really a "these," written, of course, with a long/; and then 
it would not be difficult for him, thus misled, to convert the " impious " 
into " imbs of," or " imbes of." It may be thought that some confirma- 
tion is lent to this conjecture by the fact that Zachary Jackson, the 
printer, who published in 1818 a work entitled " A Few Concise Examples 
of Seven Hundred Errors in Shakespeare's Plays, now corrected and 
elucidated" (reprinted the following year under the title of " Shake- 
speare's Genius Justified,"), proposes to read "these imps of men." 
I am not blind to the bearing which this ingenious emendation, if 



PREFACE. XV 

in the new editions both of the present and of another ele- 
mentary philological work felt it indispensable to abandon 
the ordinary fashion of designating our national speech as 
Saxon or Anglo- Saxon before, and as English only since, 
the Xorinan Conquest. I cannot call to mind another cus- 
tomary form of words which involves so much at once of un- 
founded or questionable assumption and of positive mis- 
statement as this. The common name for the language 
among the people themselves always has been, not Saxon, 
but English. It was so before the Conquest, as it is so still. 
Modern philologists, who call the earlier form of it Saxon 
or Anglo-Saxon, do so on the assumption that the portion 
of the population distinguished as the Saxons had a lan- 
guage of their own, known by their own name, before 
they left the continent for Britain, and that the common 
language of England before the Xorman Conquest was 
identical with that. But nothing of all this is either 
proved or probable. There is much more reason for be- 
lieving that the language was called English than that it 
was called Saxon on the continent as well as afterwards 
in Britain. In fact, there is no reason at all for sup- 
posing that it was ever at any time commonly or properly 
known as Saxon. There is, indeed, a Germanic dialect 
which philologists have baptised Old Saxon, or Continental 
Saxon, and of which their system supposes what it calls 

it were held to be established, might be alleged to have upon the hy- 
pothesis that has been proposed in the Prolegomena in regard to the 
authority belonging to the corrections of Mr Collier's manuscript an- 
notator. Can he, it may be argued, hare had the author's or any 
other authentic copy of the Plays before him, if he has passed orer so 
important a restoration as ought to have been made here ? Of this 
particular passage, at least, he could not be supposed to have had any 
such copy. On the other hand, however, this necessary consequence 
would obviously tell as much against the proposed reading as that does 
against the hypothesis. 



XVI PREFACE. 

Anglo-Saxon, or the Saxon of England, to be a modifica- 
tion ; but the one name is as much a modern invention as 
the other; we have no remains of this so-called Old 
Saxon of so early a date by several centuries as the first 
settlement of the Angles and Saxons in Britain ; and, al- 
though it and what is called the Saxon of England were 
no doubt nearly related, we have no evidence whatever 
either that the former was the mother and the latter the 
daughter, or even that their relationship was that of 
parent and child at all. So far, however, we have gra- 
tuitous assumption only, or little more. In what comes 
next we have downright contradiction and absurdity. If 
the language was Saxon before the Norman Conquest, 
how did it or could it come to be English after that 
catastrophe ? How is it that it is English now ? The 
only effect that the Conquest had, or possibly could ha*ve, 
upon it was to make it, not more, but less purely, less 
exclusively, English than it was before. 

G-. L. C. 
Queen's College Belfast ; 
March, 1859. 

P.S. Leaving the preceding note on pp. xiii and xiv 
as it stood, I take the opportunity of a revised impres- 
sion to say here that I do not now feel the incongruity 
of the curse in the passage under consideration being 
made to extend to the whole human race, nor do I think 
that Antony's prophecy can be fairly affirmed to narrow 
itself in what immediately follows to the calamities about 
to fall merely upon Italy. I revert, therefore, to my 
original preference for the reading of the Collier Folio :• — 
" A curse shall light upon the loins of men." 

November, 1863. 



ENGLISH OF SHAKESPEARE, 



ETC. 



PBOLEGOMENA. 

I. SHAKESPEARE'S. PERSONAL HISTORY. 

William Shake speare was born at Stratford-upon- 
Avon, in the county of Warwick, in April 1564. His 
baptism is recorded in the parish register as having taken 
place on Wednesday the 26th, and the inscription on his 
tomb makes him to have been in his fifty-third year when 
he died on the 23rd, of April 1616 ; his birth-day, therefore, 
cannot have been later than the 23rd. It was more pro- 
bably some days earlier. It is commonly assumed, never- 
theless, to have been the 23rd, which, besides being also 
the day of his death, is the day dedicated to St Greorge 
the Martyr, the patron saint of England. 

His father was John Shakespeare ; his mother, Mary 
Arderne, or Arden. The Ardens were among the oldest 
of the county gentry ; man}'' of the Shakespeares also, 
who were numerous in Warwickshire, were of good con- 
dition. The name in provincial speech was probably 
sounded ShacJcspeare or Shachsper ; but even in the 
poet's own day its more refined or literary pronunciation 
seems to have been the same that now prevails. It was 
certainly recognised as a combination of the two words 



2 PEOLEGOIMEXA. 

SJiaJce and Spear. His own spelling of it, however, in a 
few instances in which that, onr only known fragment of 
his handwriting, has come down to ns, is Sliaksjpere. 

John Shakespeare appears to have followed the "busi- 
ness of a glover, including no doubt the making of gloves 
as well as the selling of them. He seems to have fallen 
latterly into decayed circumstances; but in his better 
days it is evident that he ranked with the first class of 
the burgesses of his town. He was for many years an 
alderman, and twice filled the office of High Bailiff, or 
chief magistrate. He was also, though perhaps never 
very wealthy, but rather always a struggling man, pos- 
sessed of some houses in Stratford, as well as of a small 
freehold estate acquired by his marriage ; and his con- 
nexion with the Arden family would itself bring him con- 
sideration. His marriage probably took place in 1557. 
He lived till 1602, and his wife till 1608. Of eight 
children, four sons and four daughters, William was the 
third, but the eldest son. 

Shakespeare's father, like the generality of persons of 
his station in life of that day, appears to have been un- 
able to write his name ; all his signature in the books of 
the corporation is his cross, or mark ; but there can be 
no doubt that the son had a grammar-school education. 
He was in all probability sent to the free-school of his 
native town. After he left school it has been thought 
that he may have spent some time in an attorney's office. 
But in 1582, when he was only eighteen, he married ; his 
wife, Anne Hathaway, of Shottery, in the neighbourhood 
of Stratford, was about eight years older than himself; 
children soon followed, — first a daughter, then twins, a 
son and daughter ; and this involvement may be conjec- 
tured to have been what drove him to London, in the 
necessity of finding some way of supporting his family 
which required no apprenticeship. He became first an 
actor, then a writer for the stage. Already by the year 



"WORKS. 6 

1589 lie had worked Ms way up to be one of the proprie- 
tors of the Blackfriars Theatre. But he seems to have 
always continued to look upon Stratford as his home ; 
there he left his wife and children ; he is said to have 
made a point of revisiting his native town once a year ; 
and thither, after he had, by the unceasing activity of 
many years, secured a competency, he returned to spend 
the evening of his days in quiet. So that we may say he 
resorted to London, after all, only as the sailor goes to 
sea, always intending to come back. He appears to have 
finally retired to Stratford, and settled there on a pro- 
perty which he had purchased, about the year 1612 ; his 
wife still lived, and also his two daughters, of whom the 
elder, Susanna, was married to Dr John Hall, a physician, 
in 1607 ; the younger, Judith, to Mr Thomas Quiney, 
in February 1616. But he had lost his only son, who 
was named Hamnet, in 1596, when the boy was in his 
twelfth year. Shakespeare died at Stratford, as already 
mentioned, on the 23rd of April 1616 ; and he lies in- 
terred in the parish church there. 

His wife survived till August 1623. Both his daugh- 
ters had families ; — Susanna, a daughter, who was twice 
married ; Judith, three sons ; but no descendant of the 
great poet now exists. The last was probably Elizabeth, 
daughter of Dr Hall, who became the wife first of Thomas 
Nash, Esq., secondly of Sir John Barnard, and died 
without issue by either husband in February 1670. Nor 
is it known that there are any descendants even of his 
father remaining, although one of his brothers and also 
one of his sisters are ascertained to have been married, 
and to have had issue. 

II. SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS. 

The first work of Shakespeare's which was printed with 
his name was his poem entitled Venus and Adonis, in 
stanzas consisting each of an alternately rhyming quatrain 

b 2 



4 PKOLEGOMENA. 

followed by a couplet. It appeared in 1593, with a 
Dedication to the Earl of Southampton, in which the au- 
thor styles it the first heir of his invention. This was 
followed in 1594 by The Rape of Lucrece, in stanzas of 
seven lines, one rhyming to the fourth being here inserted 
before the closing couplet ; it is also dedicated to Lord 
Southampton, to whom the author expresses the most 
unlimited obligation: — "What I have done," he says, "is 
yours ; what I have to do is yours ; being part in all I 
have, devoted yours." The Venus and Adonis was thrice 
reprinted in Shakespeare's lifetime ; the Lucrece, five or 
six times. 

His other works, besides his Plays, are The Passionate 
Pilgrim, a small collection of poems, first printed in 
1599 ; and his Sonnets, 154 in number, with the poem 
entitled A Lover's Complaint (in the same stanza as the 
Lucrece), which appeared together in 1609. But the 
Sonnets, or some of them at least, were well known long 
before this. " As the soul of Euphorbus was thought to 
live in Pythagoras," says a writer named Erancis Meres 
in his Palladis Tamia, published in 1598, " so the sweet 
witty soul of Ovid lives in mellifluous and honey-tongued 
Shakespeare : witness his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, 
his sugared Sonnets among his private friends." It was 
still a common practice for works to be circulated to a 
limited extent in manuscript while they were withheld 
from the press. 

The first edition of Shakespeare's collected Dramatic 
Works appeared in 1623, or not till seven years after his 
death, in a folio volume. A second edition, with numerous 
verbal alterations, but no additional Plays, was brought 
out in the same form in 1632. In 1664 appeared a third 
edition, also in folio, containing seven additional Plays. 
And a fourth and last folio reprint followed in 1685. 

The Plays that are now commonly received as Shake- 
speare's are all those that are contained in the Eirst Eolio, 



WORKS. 5 

being thirty-six in number, together with Pericles, Prince 
of Tyre, one of the seven added in the Third Folio. Be- 
sides the other six in that edition, — entitled The Tragedy 
of Locrine, The First Part of the Life of Sir John Old- 
castle, The Chronicle History of Thomas Lord Cromwell, 
The London Prodigal, The Puritan, and A Yorkshire 
Tragedy, — there have been ascribed to Shakespeare in 
more recent times the old Plays of The Beign of King 
Edward the Third and The Tragedy of Arden of Fevers- 
ham ; and by certain German critics those of The Comedy 
of George-a- Green (generally held to be the work of 
Bobert Greene), The Comedy of Mucedorus, The Birth of 
Merlin, and The Merry Devil of Edmonton. Some of these 
are among the humblest productions of the human intel- 
lect ; that the notion of their being Shakespeare's should 
have been taken up by such men as Schlegel and Tieck 
is an illustrious instance of how far the blinding and ex- 
travagant spirit of system may go. Finally, the Play of 
The Two Noble Kinsmen, commonly included among those 
of Beaumont and Fletcher, has been attributed in part to 
Shakespeare ; it is described on the title-page of the first 
edition, published in 1634, as written by Fletcher and 
Shakespeare, and the opinion that Shakespeare had a 
share in it has been revived in our own day. 

Of the thirty-seven Plays generally held to be genuine, 
eighteen are known to have been separately printed, some 
of them oftener than once, in Shakespeare's lifetime : — 
Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Lovers Labour *s Lost, 
Midsummer Nightfs Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, 
Merchant of Venice, Lear, Troilus and Cressida, Pericles, 
Bichard the Second, First Part of Henry the Fourth, 
Second Part of Henry the Fourth, Bichard the Tliird (all 
substantially as we now have them) ; Hamlet, in three 
editions, two of them greatly differing the one from the 
other; and, in forms more or less unlike our present 
copies, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry the Fifth, 



b PROLEGOMENA. 

and the Second and Third Parts of Henry the Sixth, under 
the titles of " The First Part of the Contention betwixt 
the Houses of York and Lancaster/' and " The True Tra- 
gedy of Richard Duke of York" (often referred to as 
" The Second Part of the Contention"). Nor is it improb- 
able that there may have been early impressions of some 
others of the Plays, although no copies are now known. 
The Tragedy of Othello was also printed separately in 1622. 
All these separately published Plays are in quarto, and 
are familiarly known as the old or early Quartos. 

The following eighteen Plays appeared for the first 
time, as far as is known, in the Polio of 1623 : — The 
Tempest, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Measure for 
Measure, The Comedy of Errors, As Yoio Like It, The 
Taming of the Shrew, All's Well that Ends Well, Twelfth 
Night, A Winter 's Tale, King John, The Pirst Part of 
Henry the Sixth, Henry the Eighth, Coriolanus, Timon of 
Athens, Julius Ccesar, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and 
Cymbeline. 

There is reason to believe that the first edition of Titus 
Andronicus was printed in 1594, although the earliest of 
which any copy is now known is dated 1600. The earliest 
existing editions of Borneo and Juliet, Richard the Second, 
and Richard the Third, bear the date of 1597. The dates 
of the other Quartos (except Othello) all range between 
1598 and 1609. It appears, however, from Francis Meres's 
book, mentioned above, that by the year 1598, when it was 
published, Shakespeare had already produced at least the 
following Plays, several of which, as we have seen, are 
not known to have been printed till they were included a 
quarter of a century afterwards in the Pirst Polio : — The 
Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, Love's 
Labour's Lost, Midsummer Night's Bream, The Merchant 
of Venice, Richard the Second, Richard the Third, Henry 
the Fourth, King John, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and 
Juliet, and another called Love's Labour's Won, which 



has been commonly supposed to be that novr entitled 
AIVs Well that Ends Well* And Meres cannot be 

* But the play of All's Well that Ends Well seems to have its pre- 
sent title built or wrought into it, and as it were incorporated with it. 
It is Helena's habitual word, and the thought that is never absent from 
her mind. "All's well that ends well," she exclaims, in the fourth 
Scene of the Fourth Act ; 

" Still the fine's the crown : 
Whate'er the course, the end is the renown." 

And again in the first Scene of the Fifth Act : — 

"All's well that ends well yet." 
So also the King, in the concluding lines of the Play : — 
" All yet seems well ; and, if it end so meet 
The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet; " 
and then to the audience : — 

" The king's a beggar, now the play is done ; 
All is well ended, if this suit be won, 
That you express content." 

There would be no nature or meaning in the dialogue circling around 
the phrase in question, or continually returning upon it, in this way, 
unless it formed the name of the Play. On the other hand, there is 
not an expression throughout the piece that can be fairly considered as 
allusive to such a title as Love's Labour's Won. 

Another notion that has been taken up is that the Play now known 
as The Tempest is that designated Love's Labour's Won by Meres. 
This is the theory of the Pteverend Joseph Hunter, first brought for- 
ward in a " Disquisition on the Tempest," published in 1841, and re- 
produced in the Second Part of his " Xew Illustrations of the Life, 
Studies, and Writings of Shakespeare," 1844. But, notwithstanding 
all the learning and ingenuity by which it has been set forth and de- 
fended, it has probably not met with much acceptance. One would as 
soon believe with Ulrici that The Tempest is the very latest of all 
Shakespeare's Plays, as with Mr Hunter that it is one of his earliest, — 
" nearly the first in time," he calls it, " as the first in place [meaning 
as it stands in the original collective edition], of the dramas which are 
wholly his." 

May not the true Love's Labour's Won be what we now call The 
Taming of the Shreio? That Play is founded upon an older one called 
The Taming of A Shreio ; it is therefore in the highest degree improb- 
able that it was originally produced under its present name. The de- 



S PROLEGOMENA. 

held to profess to do more than to instance some of the 
works by which Shakespeare had by this time in his opin- 
ion proved himself the greatest English writer that had 
yet arisen both in tragedy and in comedy. 

Six years before this, or in 1592, Robert Greene, ac- 
counted by himself and others one of the chief lights of 
that early morning of our drama, but destined to be soon 
completely outshone and extinguished, had, perhaps with 
some presentiment of his coming fate, in a pamphlet 
which he entitled " Greene's Groatsworth of "Wit," thus 
vented his anger against the new luminary; "There is 
an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that, with 
his tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide, supposes he 

signation by which it is now known, in all likelihood, was only given 
to it after its predecessor had been driven from the stage, and had come 
to be generally forgotten. Have we not that which it previously bore 
indicated in one of the restorations of Mr Collier's MS. annotator, who 
directs ns, in the last line but one of the Second Act, instead of " in 
this case of vwoing" to read "in this case of loinning" thus giving 
us what may stand, in want of a better, for a rhyme to the " if I fail 
not of my cunning" of the line following? The lines are pretty evi- 
dently intended to rhyme, however rudely. The Play is, besides, full 
of other repetitions of the same key-note. Thus, in the second Scene 
of Act I., when Hortensio informs Gremio that he had promised Petru- 
cio, if he wo aid become suitor to Katharine, that they " would be con- 
tributors, And bear his charge of wooing, whatsoe'er," Gremio 
answers, " And so we will, provided that he win her." In the fifth Scene 
of Act IV., when the resolute Veronese has brought the shrew to a 
complete submission, Hortensio's congratulation is, "Petrucio, go thy 
ways ; the field is won." So in the concluding scene the lady's father 
exclaims, " Now fair befall thee, good Petrucio ! The wager thou hast 
won ; " to which the latter replies, " Nay, I will win my wager better 
yet." And his last words in passing from the stage, as if in pointed 
allusion to our supposed title of the piece, are — 

" 'Twas I won the wager, though you [Lucentio'] hit the white ; 
And, being a winner, God give you good night !" 

The title of Love's Labour's Won, it may be added, might also com- 
prehend the underplot of Lucentio and Bianca, and even that of Hor- 
tensio and the Widow, though in the case of the latter it might rather 
be supposed to be the lady who should be deemed the winning party. 



THE OLD TEXTS. [) 

is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best 
of you ; and, being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is, in 
his own conceit, the only Shake-scene in a country." This 
would seem to imply, what is otherwise probable enough, 
that up to this time Shakespeare had chiefly made himself 
known as a dramatic writer by remodelling and improving 
the works of his predecessors. He may, however, have 
also even already produced some Plays wholly of his own 
composition. If Titus Andronicus and the Three Parts 
of Henry the Sixth are to be accounted his in any sense, 
they probably belong to this earliest stage of his career. 

Of the thirty-seven Plays there are seven the authen- 
ticity of which has been more or less questioned. The 
Three Parts of King Henry the Sixth (especially the 
Pirst) and Titus Andronicus, if they are by Shakespeare, 
have very little of his characteristic manner ; Pericles has 
come down to us in so corrupted a state that the evidence 
of manner and style is somewhat unsatisfactory, though 
it is probably his ; Timon of Athens is generally admitted 
to be only partly his; and much of King Henry the 
Eighth, which has only recently come to be suspected, is 
also evidently by another hand. # 

III. THE SOURCES FOR THE TEXT OF SHAKE- 
SPEARE'S PLAYS. 

Erom what has been stated it appears that, of the en- 
tire number of thirty-seven Plays which are usually re- 
garded as Shakespeare's, there are only fourteen (including 
Hamlet) of which, in what may be called their completed 
state or ultimate form, we possess impressions published 
in his lifetime; together with four others (reckoning the 
Second and Third Parts of Henry the Sixth to be the 
same with the Two Parts of the Contention) of which in 

* See a paper by Mr Spedding, in the Gentleman' 's Magazine for 
August 1850, and various subsequent communications by Mr Hickson 
and others in the Notes and Queries. 



10 PEOLEGOME]S T A. 

an immature and imperfect state we have such impres- 
sions. Of one other, Othello, we have also an edition, 
printed indeed after the author's death, but apparently 
from another manuscript than that used for the First 
Folio. For the remaining eighteen Plays our oldest 
authority is that edition. And the only other sources 
for which any authority has been claimed are; 1. The 
Second, Third, and Fourth Folios ; 2. A manuscript of 
the First Part and some portions of the Second Part of 
Henry the Fourth, which is believed to be nearly of 
Shakespeare's age, and of which an impression has been 
edited by Mr Halliwell for the Shakespeare Society ; 3. 
The manuscript emendations, extending over all the 
Plays, with the exception only of Pericles, made in a 
handwriting apparently of about the middle of the seven- 
teenth century, in a copy of the Second Folio belonging 
to Mr Collier. 

None of these copies can claim to be regarded as of 
absolute authority. Even the least carelessly printed of 
the Quartos which appeared in Shakespeare's lifetime 
are one and all deformed by too many evident and uni- 
versally admitted errors to make it possible for us to 
believe that the proofs underwent either his own revision 
or that of any attentive editor or reader; it may be 
doubted if in any case the Play was even set up from the 
author's manuscript. In many, or in most, cases we may 
affirm with confidence that it certainly was not. Some 
of these Quartos are evidently unauthorized publications, 
hurriedly brought out, and founded probably in the main 
on portions of the dialogue fraudulently furnished by 
the actors, with the lacunae filled up perhaps from notes 
taken by reporters in the theatre. 

The First Folio (1623) is declared on the title-page to 
be printed " according to the true original copies ; " and 
it is probable that for most of the Plays either the 
author's autograph, or, at any rate, some copy belonging 



THE OLD TEXTS. II 

to the theatre, was made use of. The volume was put 
forth iu the names of two of Shakespeare's friends and 
fellow-actors, John Ueminge and Henrie Condell, who 
introduce what they style "these trifles," the "remains " 
of their deceased associate, by a Dedication to the Earls 
of Pembroke and Montgomery, — who, they observe, had 
been pleased to think the said trifles something, — and by 
a Preface, in which, after confessing that it would have 
been a thing to be wished " that the author himself had 
lived to have set forth and overseen his own writings," 
they desire that they his surviving friends may not be 
envied the oflice of their care and pains in collecting and 
publishing them, and so publishing them as that, whereas 
formerly, they continue, addressing the Reader, "you 
were abused with divers stolen and surreptitious copies, 
maimed and deformed by the frauds and stealths of in- 
jurious impostors that exposed them [that is, exposed them 
for sale, or published them], even those are now offered 
to your view cured and perfect of their limbs, and all the 
rest absolute in their numbers,* as he conceived them. 
Who, as he was a happy imitator of nature, was a most 
gentle expresser of it : his mind and hand went together ; 
and what he thought he uttered with that easiness, that 
we have scarce received from him a blot in his papers." 

Here we have certainly, along with an emphatic and 
undiscriminating condemnation of all the preceding im- 
pressions, a distinct declaration by the publishers of the 
present volume that they had the use of the author's 
manuscripts. It is the only mention to be found any- 
where of any of the Plays being in existence in his own 

* This Latinism has no special reference, as has sometimes been sup- 
posed, to the verse ; it means merely perfect in all their parts, or in all 
respects. So Sir Roger Twysden, in the Preface to his " Historiae 
Anglicanse Scriptores Decern " (1652), speaking of the pains that had 
been taken to ensure the accuracy of the text, says : — " Nihil unquam 
apud nos, tanti saltern conaminis, . . . adeo omnibus numeris absolu- 
tion prodiisse memini." 



12 PEOLEGOMEI^A. 

handwriting. ISTo doubt can reasonably be entertained 
that such of his papers as were in possession of the Black- 
friars Theatre, to which Heminge and Condell, like him- 
self, belonged, were placed at their disposal. And we 
may assume that from these the edition of 1623 was set 
up, so far as they went and could be made available. 

But it would be a great straining of such premises to 
conclude that the Pirst Folio is to be accepted through- 
out as anything like an infallible authority in all cases for 
what Shakespeare actually wrote. That would, for one 
thing, be to suppose an accuracy and correctness of print- 
ing and editing of which there is no example in the pub- 
lished popular literature of that age, least of all in the 
drama, which was hardly looked upon as belonging to 
literature, and in regard to which the Press, when it was 
resorted to, was always felt to be at best but an imper- 
fect and unnatural substitute for the proper mode of 
publication by means of the Stage. The writer, it would 
seem to have been thought, could not well claim as a 
work what called itself only a play. Nor do the publish- 
ers in the present instance make profession of having 
bestowed any special care upon the editing of their vol- 
ume ; what they say (or more probably what some regular 
author of the day, Ben Jonson, as it has been conjectur- 
ed, or another, had been got to write in their names) is 
nothing more than the sort of recommendation with 
which it was customary for enlarged and improved edi- 
tions to be introduced to the world, and the only positive 
assertion which it can be held to involve is, that the new 
impression of the Plays had been set up, at least in part, 
from the author's own manuscript. They lay claim, and 
we may therefore be sure could lay claim, to nothing 
further. They even admit, as we have seen, that it would 
have been better if the author himself had superintended 
the publication. Of correction of the press there is not 
one word. That, we may be pretty certain, was left 



THE OLD TEXTS. 13 

merely to the printer. It is not likely that the two play- 
ers, who, with the exception of this Dedication and Pre- 
face, to which their names are attached, are qnite unknown 
in connexion with literature, were at all qualified for such 
a function, which is not one to be satisfactorily discharged 
even by persons accustomed to writing for the press with- 
out some practice. 

But this is not all. The materials which Heminge and 
Condell, or whoever may have taken charge of the print- 
ing of the First Folio, had at their command were very 
possibly insufficient to enable them to produce a perfect 
text, although both their care and their competency had 
been greater than they probably were. In the first place, 
there is nothing in what they say to entitle us to assume 
that they had the author's own manuscript for more than 
some of the Plays. Eut, further, we do not know what 
may have been the state of such of his papers as were in 
their hands. "We are told, indeed, that they were with- 
out a blot, and the fact is an interesting one in reference 
to Shakespeare's habits of composition; but it has no 
bearing upon the claims of the text of this First Folio to 
be accounted a correct representation of what he had 
written. He had been in his grave for seven years ; the 
latest of the original copies, of the Plays were of that 
antiquity at the least; most of them must have been 
much older. If, as is probable, they had been ever since 
they were written in use at the theatres, it can hardly 
have been that such of them as were not quite worn out 
should not have suffered more or less of injury, and have 
become illegible, or legible only with great difficulty, in 
various passages. Nor may the handwriting, even when 
not partially obliterated, have been very easy to decipher. 
The very rapidity with which the poet's " thick-coming 
fancies" had been committed to the paper may have 
made the record of them, free from blots as it was, still 



14 PROLEGOMENA. 

one not to be read running, or unlikely to trip a reader 
to whom it was not familiar. 

"When we take up and examine the volume itself, we 
find it to present the very characteristics which these 
considerations would lead us to expect. As a typogra- 
phical production it is better executed than the common 
run of the English popular printing of that date. It is 
rather superior, for instance, in point of appearance, and 
very decidedly in correctness, to the Second Folio, pro- 
duced nine years later. Nevertheless it is obviously, to 
the most cursory inspection, very far from what would 
now be called even a tolerably well printed book. There 
is probably not a page in it which is not disfigured by 
many minute inaccuracies and irregularities, such as 
never appear in modern printing. The punctuation is 
throughout rude and negligent, even where it is not pal- 
pably blundering. The most elementary proprieties of 
the metrical arrangement are violated in innumerable 
passages. In some places the verse is printed as plain 
prose ; elsewhere, prose is ignorantly and ludicrously ex- 
hibited in the guise of verse. Indisputable and undis- 
puted errors are of frequent occurrence, so gross that it 
is impossible they could have been passed over, at any rate 
in such numbers, if the proof-sheets had undergone any 
systematic revision by a qualified person, however rapid. 
They were probably read in the printing-office, with more 
or less attention, when there was time, and often, when 
there was any hurry or pressure, sent to press with little 
or no examination. Everything betokens that editor or 
editing of the volume, in any proper or distinctive sense, 
there could have been none. The only editor was mani- 
festly the head workman in the printing-office. 

On closer inspection we detect other indications. In 
one instance at least we have actually the names of the 
actors by whom the Play was performed prefixed to their 



THE OLD TEXTS. 15 

portions of the dialogue instead of those of the dramatis 
personce. Mr Knight, in noticing this circumstance, ob- 
serves that it shows very clearly the text of the Play in 
which it occurs {ILucli Ado About Nothing) to have been 
taken from the play-house copy, or what is called the 
prompter's book. # But the fact is that the scene in 
question is given in the same way in the previous Quarto 
edition of the Play, published in 1600 ; so that here the 
printers of the Polio had evidently no manuscript of any 
kind in their hands, any more than they had any one 
over them to prevent them from blindly following their 
printed copy into the most transparent absurdities. The 
Quarto, to the guidance of which they were left, had evi- 
dently been set up from the prompter's book, and the 
proof-sheets could not have been read either by the au- 
thor or by any other competent person. In the case of 
how many more of the Plays the Polio in like manner 
may have been printed only from the previously published 
separate editions we cannot be sure. But other errors 
with which the volume abounds are evidence of some- 
thing more than this. In addition to a large number of 
doubtful or disputed passages, there are many readings 
in it which are either absolutely unintelligible, and there- 
fore certainly corrupt, or, although not purely nonsensical, 
yet clearly wrong, and at the same time such as are 
hardly to be sufficiently accounted for as the natural 
mistakes of the compositor. Sometimes what is evidently 
the true word or expression has given place to another 
having possibly more or less resemblance to it in form, 
but none in signification ; in other cases, what is indispens- 
able to the sense, or to the continuity and completeness 
of the dramatic narrative, is altogether omitted. Such 
errors and deficiencies can only be explained on the sup- 
position that the compositor had been left to depend 
upon a manuscript which was imperfect, or which could 

* Library Skakspere, II. 366. 



16 PROLEGOMENA. 

not be read. It is remarkable that deformities of this 
kind are apt to be found accumulated at one place ; there 
are as it were nests or eruptions of them ; they run into 
constellations ; showing that the manuscript had there 
got torn or soiled, and that the printer had been obliged 
to supply what was wanting in the best way that he 
could by his own invention or conjectural ingenuity. # 

Of the other Eolio Editions, the Second, dated 1632, 
is the only one the new readings introduced in which have 
ever been regarded as of any authority. But nothing is 
known of the source from which they may have been de- 
rived. The prevailing opinion has been that they are 
nothing more than the conjectural emendations of the 
unknown editor. Some of them, nevertheless, have been 
adopted in every subsequent reprint. 

The manuscript of Henry the Fourth (belonging to 
Sir Edward Dering, Bart., of Surrenden in Kent) is cu- 
rious and interesting, as being certainly either of Shake- 
speare's own age or close upon it, and as the only known 
manuscript copy of any of the Plays of nearly that anti- 
quity. But it appears to have been for the greater part 
merely transcribed from some printed text, with such 
omissions and modifications as were deemed expedient in 
reducing the two Plays to one.f The First Fart of 

* I have discussed the question of the reliance to be placed on the 
First Folio at greater length in an article on The Text of Shakespeare, 
in the 40th No. of the North British Review (for February 1854). It 
is there shown, from an examination of the First Act of Macbeth, that 
the number of readings in the First Folio (including arrangements of 
the verse and punctuations affecting the sense) which must be admitted 
to be either clearly wrong or in the highest degree suspicious probably 
amounts to not less than twenty on an average per page, or about 
twenty thousand in the whole volume. Most of them have been given 
up and abandoned even by those of the modern editors who profess 
the most absolute deference to the general authority of the text in 
which they are found. 

f I am informed by a friend, upon whose accuracy I can rely, that 
a collation of a considerable portion of the MS. with the Quarto of 



THE OLD TEXTS. 17 

Henry the 'Fourth had been printed no fewer than five 
times, and the Second Part also once, in the lifetime of 
the author. The Dering MS., however, exhibits a few 
peculiar readings. One of them is remarkable. 

For the lines, in the speech by the King with which 
the First Fart opens, commonly given as — 

" No more the thirsty entrance of this soil 
Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood "— - 

we have in the MS. — 

" No more y e thirsty bosome of this land 
Shall wash her selfe in her owne childrens blond," 

Here are in the compass of two lines no fewer than five 
variations ; — "bosom for entrance, land for soil, wasli for 
daub, self for lips, in for with, — the last being, moreover, 
a correction deliberately interlined over an erasure of 
the other reading. 

The substitution of wash for daub is not without im- 
portance, the more especially as daub is commonly assumed 
to be the old reading, whereas it is really, I believe, 
nothing more than a modern conjectural emendation of 
the damb (or damp ?) of the early copies. 

But the most important variation is that of bosom for 
entrance. Now, in the first place, although entrance is 
the reading of the First and Second, and, I believe, also 
of the Third Folio, another reading, entrails, is not, as 
has been sometimes supposed, the conjecture of Mr 
Douce, but is found in the Fourth Folio. I confess, 
however, that I can make nothing of entrance, and, if 
possible, still les3 of entrails. We are told that the 
" entrance of this soil" means the mouth of this soil. If 
a single instance can be produced from any writer, not 
confessedly insane, in which the mouth either of a real 
person, or of something represented as a living person, is 

1613 leaves no doubt of that being the printed edition on which it was 
formed. 

c 



18 PROLEGOMENA. 

styled his, her, or its entrance, I shall be satisfied. Such 
a mode of expression, it appears to me, would at once 
destroy the personification. We speak, indeed, of the 
entrance of a cavern, for the mouth of a cavern ; but here 
we are not calling a mouth an entrance, but an entrance 
a mouth : the proper prosaic name of the aperture by 
which we enter the cave is its entrance, which, when we 
animate the cave, we change into its mouth; but the op- 
posite process is, I apprehend, unknown either in prose 
or in verse, in written eloquence or in the loosest colloquial 
speech. Any one who should talk of the entrance of a 
man, or of a lion, or of a dog, meaning the mouth, would 
not be understood. So in Latin we have the entrance to 
a river very often called its os, but nowhere the mouth 
of any living creature, or of any poetical personification, 
ever spoken of as its ostium* 

Nothing, also, can be more indisputable than that the 
two hers — " her lips" (or herself) and " her own children's 
blood"— must have the same reference. This is what 
syntax and common sense alike imperatively demand. 
Steevens's notion, therefore, that by "her lips" may be 
meant the lips of peace, mentioned four lines before, would 
be untenable, were there no other objection to it than 
that it would, apparently, give the her of " her lips" one 
reference and the her of " her own children" another. 

The lips and the children must plainly be understood 
to be either those of the soil, or those of that, whatever 
it may have been, the designation of which has given rise 
to the various readings, entrance, entrails, entrants, as 
proposed by Steevens, bosom, &c. One's first inclination 
is to suppose some personage animating or presiding over 

* The only interpretation of entrance having the least plausibility 
appears to me to be that thrown out by Theobald : — " I presume the 
sense is, ' blood-thirsty invasion of this country shall no more stain it 
with its own children's gore.' But is this idea conveyed by thirsty 
entrance ?" Letter to Warburton, dated 13 January 1730, in Nichols's 
Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, II. 402. 



THE OLD TEXTS. 19 

the soil ; and hence such conjectures as that of Monk 
Mason, — "the thirsty Erinnys of this soil," — which has 
been adopted in many editions, and which might mean 
that the Spirit of Discord should no more daub either 
her own lips with the blood of her own children, or the 
lips of the soil with the blood of the children of the soil. 
The circumstance of the word Erinnys being a Shake- 
spearian airai, Xeyofievov, or not elsewhere found, would 
make it more likely to have been mistaken by the printer. 
So also might be interpreted " the thirsty Genius of this 
soil," as proposed in the First Edition of the present work. 

But to both these readings there is this objection, 
which I apprehend must be held to be fatal. On the one 
hand, the epithet thirsty, standing where it does, seems 
clearly to bind us to understand that the lips described 
as to be no more daubed, or moistened, were those, not 
of the soil, but of the imaginary personage (the Erinnys 
or the Genius) to whom the performance of the act of 
daubing is attributed ; on the other, the people could not 
be called the children of either the one of these person- 
ages or the other. And I do not think it would be pos- 
sible to find any other mythological personage who could, 
more than either of these two, be represented as at once 
the owner of the lips and the parent of the children. It 
may be added that against " the thirsty Genius" this ob- 
jection is of double force; inasmuch as, Genius being 
always conceived to be a male, the "her lips" (as well as 
" her own children") would in that case have of necessity 
to be understood as signifying the lips (and children) of 
the soil, — which would leave the epithet "thirsty" with- 
out meaning. 

I do not think, therefore, that there is any other 
known reading which can compete with that of the 
Dering MS. The hosom of the soil, or ground, or earth, is 
one of the commonest and most natural forms of figurative 
expression, and is particularly natural and appropriate 

c 2 



20 PROLEGOMENA. 

when the soil or ground is represented, as here, under 
the personification of a mother with her children. So 
Friar Lawrence says, in Borneo and Juliet, when setting 
out from his cell, basket in hand, at the dawn of day, to 
gather his "baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers" — 

" The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb ; 
What is her burying grave, that is her womb ; 
And from her womb children of divers kind 
We, sucking on her natural bosom, find." 

Then for the authority on which this reading rests, the 
probability surely is that the deviation from the common 
printed text was not made on mere conjecture; great 
pains appear to have been taken with the MS.; it is 
carefully corrected throughout in the handwriting of Sir 
Edward Dering, who died in 1644 ; and he may very well 
be supposed to have had access to other sources of in- 
formation, both documentary and oral, in addition to the 
printed books. A strong case might be made out for 
such a MS. as being entitled to quite as much deference 
as any of the early printed copies, quarto or folio. 

The first or outside page of the manuscript from which 
this Play had been originally set up may very prof)ably 
have been in a somewhat dilapidated state when it was 
put into the hands of the printer. In addition to the 
five variations in the two lines that have been quoted, 
it is doubtful whether in the first line of the speech 
we ought to read " wan with care" or " icorn with care ;" 
the latter is the correction of Mr Collier's MS. annotator, 
and certainly it would seem to be more natural for the 
King to speak of his anxieties as wearing him down and 
wasting him away than as merely blanching his com- 
plexion. 

It is only upon this supposition of the old text of the 
Plays having been printed from a partially obliterated or 
otherwise imperfectly legible manuscript, which, as we 
see, meets and accounts for other facts and peculiar ap 



THE OLD TEXTS. 21 

pearances, while it is also so probable in itself, that the 
remarkable collection of emendations in Mr Collier's copy 
of the Second Folio can, apparently, be satisfactorily ex- 
plained. The volnme came into Mr Collier's hands in 
1S^9, and was some time afterwards discovered by him 
to contain a vast number of alterations of the printed 
text inserted by the pen, in a handwriting certainly of 
the seventeenth century, and possibly of not much later 
date than the volume. They extend over all the thirty- 
six Plays, and are calculated to amount in all to at least 
20,000. Here is, then, a most elaborate revision — an 
expenditure of time and painstaking which surely could 
only have been prompted and sustained by a strong feel- 
ing in the annotator of admiration for his author, and 
the most anxious and scrupulous regard for the integrity 
of his text. Such motives would be very inconsistent with 
the substitution generally for the old words of anything 
that might merely strike him as being possibly a prefer- 
able reading. The much more probable presumption is 
that he followed some guide. Such a labour is only to 
be naturally accounted for by regarding it as that of the 
possessor of a valued but very inaccurately printed book 
who had obtained the means of collating it with and cor- 
recting it by a trustworthy manuscript. And, when we 
come to examine the new readings, we find everything in 
sufficient correspondence with this hypothesis ; some 
things almost, we may say, demonstrating it. Some of 
the alterations are of a kind altogether transcending the 
compass of conjectural emendation, unless it had taken 
the character of pure invention and fabrication. Such 
in particular are the entire lines inserted in various pas- 
sages of which we have not a trace in the printed text. 
The number, too, of the new readings which cannot but 
be allowed to be either indisputable, or, at the least, in 
the highest degree ingenious and plausible, is of itself 
almost conclusive against our attributing them to nothing 
better than conjecture. Upon this supposition this un- 



22 PROLEGOMENA. 

known annotator would have outdone all that has been 
accomplished in the way of brilliant and felicitous con- 
jecture by all other labourers upon the Shakespearian 
text taken together. On the other hand, some of his 
alterations are in all probability mistaken, some of his 
new readings apparently inadmissible ; # and many pas- 

* Among such must be reckoned undoubtedly the alteration, in Lady 
Macbeth' s passionate rejoinder (Macbeth, i. 7), — 
" What beast was't, then, 
That made you break this enterprise tome?" — 

of beast into boast. This is to convert the forcible and characteristic 
not merely into tameness but into no-meaning ; for there is no possi- 
ble sense of the word boast which will answer here. But in this case 
the corrector was probably left to mere conjecture in making his se- 
lection between the two words ; for in the handwriting of the earlier 
part of the seventeenth century the e and o are frequently absolutely 
undistinguishable. In the specimen of the annotator's own hand- 
writing which Mr Collier gives, the two e's of the word brief ely are as 
like o's as e's, and what Mr Collier reads bleeding might be equally 
read blooding, if that were a word. Would Mr Collier thus correct 
Tennyson's 

" Were not his words delicious, I a beast 
To take them as I did ? " 

Edwin Morris. 

There cannot, I conceive, be a question that a celebrated passage in 
another Play has been seriously injured by the same mistake which 
the annotator has made in the instance under consideration. Is it not 
self-evident that the speech of Polixenes in the Third Scene of the 
Fourth Act of the Winter's Tale should run as follows ? — 

" Nature is made better by no mean 
But nature makes that mean. So ever that art, 
Which you say adds to nature, is an art 

That nature makes 

The art itself is nature." 

The " o'er that art" of the modern editions is " over that art" in the 
old copies. — In other cases, again, the ever and the even have evidently 
been confounded; as in The Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 6, where 
Fenton describes Mrs Page as " even strong against" the marriage of 
her daughter with Slender, " and firm for Doctor Caius." The error 
here, if it be one, however, has apparently been left uncorrected by 
Mr Collier's MS. annotator. 



THE OLD TEXTS. 23 

sages which there can hardly be a doubt are corrupt are 
passed over by him without correction. All this becomes 
intelligible upon our hypothesis. "Working possibly upon 
the same manuscripts (whether those of the author or 
no) from which the printed text had been set up, he 
would with more deliberation, or by greater attention 
and skill, succeed in deciphering correctly much of the 
difficult or faded writing which had baffled or been mis- 
read by the printer. In other places, again, he was able 
to make nothing of it, or it deceived him. In some cases 
he may have ventured upon a conjecture, and when he 
does that he may be as often wrong as right. The manu- 
scripts of which he had the use — whether the author's 
original papers or only transcripts from them — probably 
belonged to the theatre ; and they might now be in a 
much worse condition in some parts than when they were 
in the hands of Heminge and Condell in 1623. The an- 
notator would seem to have been connected with the 
stage. The numerous and minute stage directions which 
he has inserted look as if it might have been for the use 
of some theatrical Company, and mainly with a view to 
the proper representation of the Plays, that his laborious 
task was undertaken. # 

* I do not remember having seen it noticed that the theatres claimed 
a property in the Plays of Shakespeare, and affected to be in possession 
of the authentic copies, down to a comparatively recent date. The 
following Advertisement stands prefixed to an edition of Pericles, in 
12mo, published in 1734, and professing to be " printed for J. Tonson, 
and the rest of the Proprietors : " — " Whereas R. "Walker, and his ac- 
complices, have printed and published several of Shakespeare's Plays, 
and, to screen their innumerable errors, advertise that they are printed 
as they are acted ; and industriously report that the said Plays are 
printed from copies made use of at the Theatres ; I therefore declare, 
in justice to the Proprietors, whose right is basely invaded, as well as 
in defence of myself, that no person ever had, directly or indirectly, 
from me any such copy or copies ; neither would I be accessary, on 
any account, to the imposing on the public such useless, pirated, and 
maimed editions, as are published by the said E-. Walker. "W. Chet- 



24 PBOLEGOME^A. 

Mr Collier has given an account of his annotated Folio 
in a volume which he published in 1852, entitled " Notes 
and Emendations to the text of Shakespeare's Plays, 
from Early Manuscript Corrections in a Copy of the 
Folio, 1632." A second edition of this volume appeared 
in 1853 ; and meanwhile he had also given to the world 
the same year an edition, in one volume, of " The Plays of 
Shakespeare : The Text regulated by the Old Copies, 
and by the recently discovered Folio of 1632, containing 
early Manuscript Emendations." But the most distinct 
statement that he has made upon the subject is that con- 
tained in a subsequent volume entitled " Seven Lectures 
on Shakespeare and Milton, by the late S. T. Coleridge ; 
A List of all the MS. Emendations in Mr Collier's Folio, 
1632; and an Introductory Preface;" 8vo, Lon. 1856. 
Of this volume the account of the annotations, headed 
" A List of Every Manuscript Note and Emendation in 
Mr Collier's Copy of Shakespeare's Works, Folio, 1632," 
is spread over about 120 pages. Instead of 20,000, how- 

wood, Prompter to His Majesty's Company of Comedians at the 
Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane." On the subject of this Chetwood 
see Malone's Inquiry into the Shakespeare Papers, pp. 350 — 352. In 
Tonson's similar editions of The History of Sir John Oldcastle and 
The Tragedy of Locrine (both declared on the title-page to be " By 
Mr William Shakespear"), he speaks in like manner of himself " and 
the other Proprietors of the Copies of Shakespear' s Plays,' * and com- 
plains that " one Walker has proposed to pirate ail Shakespear' s Plays, 
but, through ignorance of what Plays were Shakespear's, did in several 
Advertisements propose to print (Edipus King of Thebes as one of 
Shakespear's Plays, and has since printed Tate's King Lear instead of 
Shakespear's, and in that and Hamlet has omitted almost one half of 
the genuine editions printed by J. Tonson and the Proprietors." It 
would appear from Nichols's Illustrations, II. 199, that Theobald in 
the Preface to the Second Edition of his Play of The Double Falsehood, 
which he pretended was written by Shakespeare, spoke of private pro- 
perty perhaps standing so far in his way as to prevent him from putting 
out a complete edition of Shakespeare's Works. The passage, which 
does not occur in the first edition (1728), is retained in the third (1767). 



EDITOES AKD COMMENTATORS. 25 

ever, as originally stated (see Notes and Emendations, 
Introduction, p. iv.), the alterations here enumerated can- 
not mnch exceed 3000. Those omitted are probably 
(though nothing to that effect is said) only corrections 
of what are called literal errors, or such misprints as ra- 
ther disfigure than injure the sense. Among them, 
however, are such as the alteration of damhe into daub in 
the passage quoted above from the beginning of the Mrst 
Part of Henry the Fourth, which is mentioned in the 
Notes and Emendations, though passed over in the List. 
It would be more satisfactory if everything were given. * 

IV. THE SHAKESPEARIAN EDITOES AND 
COMMENTATORS. 

The four Folios were the only editions of the Plays of 
Shakespeare brought out in the seventeenth century ; and, 
except that the First, as we have seen, has a Dedication 
and Preface signed by Heminge and Condell, two actors 
belonging to the Blackfriars Theatre, nothing is known, 
and scarcely anything has been conjectured, as to what 
superintendence any of them may have had in passing 
through the press. The eighteenth century produced a 
long succession of editors : — Eowe, 1709 and 1714 ; Pope, 
1725 and 1728 ; Theobald, 1733 and 1740 ; Hanmer, 1744; 
Warburton, 1747 ; Johnson, 1765 ; Steevens, 1766 ; Capell, 
1768; Eeed, 1785; Malone, 1790; Eann, 1786—1794. 
The editions of Hanmer, Johnson, Steevens, Malone, and 
Eeed were also all reprinted once or oftener, for the most 

* Nearly the same 'views in most respects which I had announced 
in the North British Review in 1854, both on the Shakespearian text 
and on the new readings supplied by Mr Collier's MS. annotator, are 
ably advocated in an article in the Edinburgh Eevievj, Xo. 210, for 
April 1856. The writer refers to a paper, which I have not seen, in 
a number of the North American .Review for the preceding year, as 
containing " by far the best and most thoroughly reasoned discussion " 
of the subject with which he had met. 



26 



PKOLEGOMENA. 



part with enlargements ; and all the notes of the preceding 
editions were at last incorporated in what is called Reed's 
Second Edition of Johnson and Steevens, which appeared, 
in 21 volumes 8vo, in 1803. This was followed in 1821 by 
what is now the standard Variorum edition, also in 21 vol- 
umes, which had been mostly prepared by Malone, and was 
completed and carried through the press by his friend Mr 
James Boswell. We have since had the various editions 
of Mr Knight and Mr Collier, from both of whom, in addi- 
tion to other original research and speculation, both biblio- 
graphical and critical, we have received the results of an 
examination of the old texts more careful and extended 
than they had previously been subjected to. New critical 
editions by the late Mr Singer and by Mr Staunton have 
also appeared within the last few years ; and there are 
in course of publication the Cambridge edition by Mr 
Clark and Mr Wright, and another since commenced by 
Mr Dyce, besides the magnificent edition by Mr Halli- 
well, which is to extend to 20 volumes folio. 

The list of commentators, however, includes several 
other names besides those of the editors of the entire 
collection of Plays ; in particular, Upton, in " Critical 
Observations," 1746 ; Br Zachary Grey, in " Critical, His- 
torical, and Explanatory Notes," 1755 ; Heath, in " A 
Eevisal of Shakespeare's Text," 1765; Kenrich, in a 
"Keview of Johnson's Edition," 1765, and "Defence of 
Eeview," 1766 ; Tyrwhitt, in " Observations and Conjec- 
tures," 1766; Br 'Richard Farmer, in "Essay on the 
Learning of Shakespeare," 1767 ; Charles Jennens, in an- 
notated editions of" King Lear," 1770,—" Othello," 1773, 
— "Hamlet," 1773,— " Macbeth," 1773,— and "Julius 
Caesar," 1774 ; John Monck Mason, in " Comments on the 
Last Edition of Shakespeare's Plays," 1785, and " Fur- 
ther Observations," 1798; A. Beckett, in "A Concord- 
ance to Shakespeare, to which are added three hundred 
Notes and Illustrations," 1787; Bitson, in "The Quip 



THE MODERN TEXTS. 27 

Modest," 1781, and " Cursory Criticisms," 1792 ; Whiter, 
in "A Specimen of a Commentary," 1794 ; George Chal- 
mers, in " Apology for the Believers in the Shakespearian 
Papers," 1797, and "Supplemental Apology," 1799; 
Douce, in " Illustrations of Shakespeare and of Ancient 
Manners," 1807 ; Reverend Joseph Hunter, in " Illustra- 
tions of the Life, Studies, and "Writings of Shakespeare," 
1844 ; and Reverend Alexander Dyce, in " Remarks on 
Mr Collier's and Mr Knight's Editions," 1844, and "A 
Few Notes on Shakespeare," 1853. To these names and 
titles may be added the Reverend Samuel Ayscough's 
" Index to the Bemarkable Passages and Words made 
use of by Shakespeare," 1790; "A Complete Verbal Index 
to the Plays of Shakespeare," in 2 vols., by Francis Twiss, 
Esq., 1805 ; and Mrs Cowden Clarice's " Complete Con- 
cordance to Shakspere," 1847. Finally, there may be 
mentioned Archdeacon Nares's " Glossary of Words, etc., 
thought to require Illustration in Shakespeare and his 
Contemporaries," 1822.* 

V. THE MODERN SHAKESPEARIAN TEXTS. 

jNo modern editor has reprinted the Plays of Shake- 
speare exactly as they stand in any of the old Polios or 
Quartos. Neither the spelling, nor the punctuation, nor 
the words of any ancient copy have been retained un- 
altered, even with the correction of obvious errors of the 
Press. It has been universally admitted by the course 
that has been followed that a genuine text is not to be 
obtained without more or less of conjectural emendation : 
the only difference has been as to the extent to which it 
should be carried. The most recent texts, however, 
beginning with that of Malone, and more especially those 
of Mr Knight and of Mr Collier (in his eight volume 
edition), have been formed upon the principle of adhering 

* Of this important work a new edition, with, large additions, has 
lately been announced as in preparation. 



28 PKOLEGOME]S T A. 

to the original copies as closely as possible; and they 
have given us back many old readings which had been 
rejected by preceding editors. There has been some dif- 
ference of opinion among editors of the modern school in 
regard to whether the preference should be given in 
certain cases to the First Folio or to some previous 
Quarto impression of the Play produced in the lifetime 
of the author; and Steevens latterly, in opposition to 
Malone. who had originally been his coadjutor, set up 
the doctrine that the Second Folio was a safer guide than 
the First. This heresy, however, has probably now been 
abandoned by everybody. 

But, besides the correction of what are believed to be 
errors of the Press in the old copies, the text of Shake- 
speare has been subjected to certain modifications in all 
the modern reprints : — 

1. The spelling has been reduced to the modern stand- 
ard. The original spelling is certainly no part of the 
composition. There is no reason to believe that it is even 
Shakespeare's own spelling. In all probability it is 
merely that of the person who set up the types. Spenser 
may be suspected to have had some peculiar notions upon 
the subject of orthography ; but, apparently, it was not 
a matter about which Shakespeare troubled himself. In 
departing from the original editions here, therefore, we 
lose nothing that is really his. 

2. The actual form of the word in certain cases has 
been modernized. This deviation is not so clearly defens- 
ible upon principle, but the change is so slight, and the 
convenience and advantage so considerable, that it may 
fairly be held to be justifiable nevertheless on the ground 
of expediency. The case of most frequent occurrence is 
that of the word than, which with Shakespeare, as gener- 
ally with his contemporaries and predecessors, is always 
then. "Greater then a king" would be intolerable to 
the modern ear. Then standing in this position is there- 



THE MODEEX TESTS. Z\) 

fore quietly converted by all the modern editors into our 
modern than. Another form which was unquestionably 
part of the regular phraseology and grammar of his day 
is what is sometimes described as the conjunction of a 
plural nominative with a singular verb, but is really only 
a peculiar mode of innecting the verb, by which the plural 
is left undistinguished from the singular. Shakespeare 
and his contemporaries, although they more usually said, 
as we do, " words sometimes give offence," held them- 
selves entitled to say also, if they chose, " words some- 
times gives offence." But here again so much offence 
would be given by the antiquated phraseology to the 
* modern ear, accustomed to such an apparent violation of 
concord only from the most illiterate lips, that the detri- 
mental s has been always suppressed in the modern edi- 
tions, except only in a few instances in which it happens 
to occur as an indispensable element of the rhyme — as 
when Macbeth, in his soliloquy before going in to murdei 
the sleeping King (ii. 1) says, — 

u Whiles I threat he lives : 
"Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives ; " 

or, as when 'Romeo says to Friar Lawrence (ii. 3), 

" Both our remedies 
Within thy help and holy physic lies." 

A few contractions also, such as upon't, on's head, etc., 
which have now become too vulgarized for composition of 
any elevation, are usually neglected in constructing the 
modern text, and without any appreciable injury to its 
integrity. 

3. In some few cases the editors have gone the length 
of changing even the word which Shakespeare may very 
possibly have written, or which may probably have stood 
in the manuscript put into the hands of the original 
printers, when it has been held to be palpably or incontro- 
vertibly wrong. In Julius Ccesar, for instance (ii. I), 
they have upon this principle changed "the first of 



30 PROLEGOMENA. 

March" into "the ides of March" (149), and afterwards 
"fifteen days" into "fourteen days" (154). It is evi- 
dent, however, that alterations of this kind onght to be 
very cautiously made. 

VI. THE MECHANISM OF ENGLISH VERSE, AND THE 
PROSODY OF THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

The mechanism of verse is a thing altogether distinct 
from the mnsic of verse. The one is matter of rule, the 
other of taste and feeling. No rules can be given for the 
production of music, or of the musical, any more than for 
the production of poetry, or the poetical. 

The law of the mechanical construction of verse is com- 
mon to verse of every degree of musical quality, — to the 
roughest or harshest (provided it be verse at all), as well 
as to the smoothest and sweetest. Music is not an abso- 
lute necessity of verse. There are cases in which it is 
not even an excellence or desirable ingredient. Verse is 
sometimes the more effective for being unmusical. The 
mechanical law or form is universally indispensable. It 
is that which constitutes the verse. It may be regarded 
as the substance ; musical character, as the accident or 
ornament. 

In every language the principle of the law of verse 
undoubtedly lies deep in the nature of the language. In 
all modern European languages, at least, it is dependent 
upon the system of accentuation established in the lan- 
guage, and would probably be found to be modified in each 
case according to the peculiarities of the accentual system. 
In so far as regards these languages, verse may be defined 
to consist in a certain arrangement of accented and un- 
accented syllables. 

The Plays of Shakespeare are all, with the exception 
only of occasional couplets, in unrhymed or what is called 
Blank verse. This form of verse was first exemplified in 



THE TERSE. 31 

English in a translation of the Fourth Book of theiEneid by 
the unfortunate Lord Surrey, who was executed in 1547 ; 
it was first employed in dramatic writing by Thomas 
Sackville (afterwards Lord Buckhurst and Earl of Dorset) 
in his Gorbodue (or Ferreoc and Porrex), produced in 
1561; and, although not much used in poetical com- 
positions of any other kind, either translated or original, 
till Milton brought it into reputation by his Paradise Lost 
in the latter part of the following century, it had come 
to be the established or customary verse for both tragedy 
and comedy before Shakespeare began to write for the 
stage. Our only legitimate English Blank verse is that 
commonly called the Heroic, consisting normally in a 
succession of five feet of two syllables each, with the 
pressure of the voice, or accent, on the latter of the two, 
or, in other words, on the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, 
and tenth syllables of each line. After the tenth syllable, 
an unaccented syllable, or even two, may be added without 
any prosodical effect. The rhythm is completed with the 
tenth syllable, and what follows is only as it were a slight 
reverberation or echo. 

But this general statement is subject to certain import- 
ant modifications : — 

1. In any of the feet an accent on the first syllable 
may be substituted for one on the second, providing it 
be not done in two adjoining feet. This transference of 
the accent is more unusual in certain of the feet than in 
others — most of all in the fifth, next to that in the second ; 
— but is not in any foot a violation of the law of the 
verse, or what is properly to be called a licence. 

2. It is a universal law of English verse, that any 
syllable whatever, falling in the place of the accent either 
immediately before or immediately after a foot of which 
one of the syllables is truly accented, will be accounted 
to be accented for the purposes of the verse. The -my of 
enemy, for instance, or the in- of intercept, is always so 



32 PROLEGOMENA. 

accounted in heroic verse, in virtue of the true accent 
upon en- and upon -cept ; but in dactylic or anapaestic 
verse, these syllables, although pronounced precisely in 
the same manner, are always held to be unaccented, the 
law of those kinds of verse not requiring another accent 
within the distance at which the -my stands removed from 
the en-, or the in- from the -cept. This, in so far as re- 
gards the heroic line, is equivalent to saying that every 
alternate foot may be without a really accented syllable 
in it at all. Or the line might be denned as consisting, 
not of five feet of two syllables each, with one of them 
accented, but of two and a half feet, each of four syllables, 
with at least one of the four accented; the half foot, 
which need not have an accent, occurring sometimes at 
the beginning of the line, sometimes in the middle, some- 
times at the end. Practically, the effect is, that anywhere 
in the line we may have a sequence of three syllables 
(none of them being superfluous) without any accent ; 
and that there is no word in the language (such as Horace 
was plagued with in Latin) quod versu dicere non est, — 
none, whether proper name or whatever else, which the 
verse does not readily admit. 

3. It is by no means necessary (though it is commonly 
stated or assumed to be so) that the syllables alternating 
with the accented ones should be unaccented. Any or 
all of them may be accented also. 

4. [Further, in any of the places which may be occupied 
by an unaccented syllable it is scarcely an irregularity to 
introduce two or even more such unaccented syllables. 
The effect may be compared to the prolongation or dis- 
persion of a note in music by what is called a shake. Of 
course, such a construction of verse is to be resorted to 
sparingly and only upon special grounds or occasions ; 
employed habitually, or very frequently, it crowds and 
cumbers the rhythm, and gives it a quivering and feeble 
character. Eut it can nowhere be said to be illegitimate, 



THE TERSE. 33 

— although, in ordinary circumstances, it may have a less 
agreeable effect in some places of the line than in others. 

These four modifications of its normal structure are 
what, along with the artistic distribution of the pauses 
and cadences, principally give its variety, freedom, and 
life to our Heroic verse. They are what the intermixture 
of dactyls and spondees is to the Greek or Latin Hex- 
ameter. They are none of them of the nature of what is 
properly denominated a poetic licence, which is not a 
modification but a violation of the rule, permissible only 
upon rare occasions, and altogether anarchical and de- 
structive when too frequently committed. The first three 
of our four modifications are taken advantage of habitu- 
ally and incessantly by every writer of verse in the lan- 
guage ; and the fourth, to a greater or less extent, at least 
by nearly all our blank verse poets. 

So much cannot be said for another form of verse (if it 
is to be so called) which has also been supposed to be 
found in Shakespeare ; that, namely, in which a line, 
evidently perfect both at the beginning and the end, 
wants a syllable in the middle. Such, for instance, is the 
well-known line in Measure for Measure, ii. 2, as it 
stands in the First Folio, — 

" Than the soft myrtle. Bat man, proud man." 

Here, it will be observed, we have not a hemistich (by 
which we mean any portion of a verse perfect so far as it 
extends, whether it be the commencing or concluding 
portion), but something which professes to be a complete 
verse. The present is not merely a truncated line of nine 
syllables, or one where the defect consists in the want of 
either the first or the last syllable ; the defect here would 
not be cured by any addition to either the beginning or 
the end of the line ; the syllable that is wanting is in the 
middle. 

The existing text of the Play^ presents us with a con- 



34 PROLEGOMENA. 

siderable number of verses of this description. In many 
of these, in all probability, the text is corrupt ; the want- 
ing syllable, not being absolutely indispensable to the 
sense, has been dropt out in the copying or setting up by 
some one (a common case) not much alive to the demands 
of the prosody. The only other solution of the difficulty 
that has been oifered is, that we have a substitute for the 
omitted syllable in a pause by which the reading of the 
line is to be broken. This notion appears to have received 
the sanction of Coleridge. But I cannot think that he 
had fully considered the matter. It is certain that in no 
verse of Coleridge's own does any mere pause ever per- 
form the function which would thus be assigned to it. 
Nor is any such principle recognized in any other English 
verse, modern or ancient, of which we have a text that 
can be absolutely relied upon. It is needless to observe 
that both in Shakespeare and in all our other writers of 
verse we have abundance of lines broken by pauses of all 
lengths without any such effect being thereby produced as 
is here assumed. If the pause be really equivalent to a 
syllable, how happens it that it is not so in every case ? 
Eut that it should be so in any case is a doctrine to which 
I should have the greatest difficulty in reconciling myself. 
How is it possible by any length of pause to bring any- 
thing like rhythm out of the above quoted words, — 

" Than the soft myrtle. But man, proud man " ? 

If this be verse, there is nothing that may not be so de- 
signated. 

I should be inclined to say, that, wherever there seems 
to be no reason for suspecting the loss of a syllable, we 
ought in a case of this sort to regard the words as making 
not one line, but two hemistichs, or truncated lines. 
Thus, the passage in Measure for Measure would stand — 

" Merciful heaven ! 
Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt, 



THE TERSE. 35 

Splitt'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak 

Than the soft myrtle. 

But man, proud man, 

Dress 'd in a little brief authority : " &c. 

This is nothing more than what has been done with the 
words "Merciful heaven!" which all the modern editors 
print as a hemistich, but which both in the First Folio 
and in all the others is made to form a line with the 
words that immediately precede ; thus ; — 

" Nothing but thunder : Mercifull heauen." 

What mainly gives its character to the English Heroic 
line is its being poised upon the tenth syllable. It is by 
this, as well as by the number of feet, that its rhythm or 
musical flow is distinguished, for instance, from that of 
what is called the Alexandrine, or line of twelve syllables, 
the characteristic of which is that the pressure is upon 
the sixth and the twelfth. "Without this twelve syllables 
will no more make an Alexandrine than they will a com- 
mon Heroic line. There are in fact many Heroic lines 
consisting of twelve syllables, but still, nevertheless, 
resting upon the tenth. 

It follows that generally in this kind of verse the tenth 
syllable will be strongly accented. That is the normal 
form of the line. When there is rhyme, the consonance 
is always in the tenth syllable. As, however, in dancing 
(which is a kind of visible verse, — the poetry of motion, 
as it has been called), or in architecture (which is another 
kind, and may be styled the visible poetry of repose), 
the pressure upon that which really sustains is sometimes 
sought to be concealed, or converted into the semblance 
of its opposite, and the limb or the pillar made to appear 
to be rather drawn towards the ground than resting upon 
it, so in word-poetry too we have occasionally the exhi- 
bition of a similar feat. Instead of a strongly accented 
syllable, one taking only a very slight accent, or none at 

d 2 



3(5 PROLEGOMENA.. 

all, is made to fill the tenth place. One form, indeed, of 
this peculiarity of structure is extremely common, and is 
resorted to by all our poets as often for mere convenience 
as for any higher purpose, that, namely, in which the 
weak tenth syllable is the termination of a word of which 
the syllable having the accent has already done duty in 
its proper place in the preceding foot. It is in this way 
that, both in our blank and in our rhymed verse, the 
large classes of words ending in 4ng, -ness, -ment, -y, etc., 
and accented on the antepenultimate, are made available 
in concluding so many lines. The same thing happens 
when we have at the end of the line a short or unaccented 
monosyllable which either coalesces like an enclitic with 
the preceding word or at least belongs to the same clause 
of the expression ; as in Beaumont and Fletcher's 



" By my dead father's soul, you stir not, Sir ! " 

(Humorous Lieutenant, ii. 2) ; 



or, 



" And yields all thanks to me for that dear care 
Which I was bound to have in training you." 

(King and No King, ii.). 

But another case is more remarkable, 

This is when the weak or unaccented tenth syllable is 
neither the final syllable of a word the accented syllable 
of which has already done service in the preceding foot, nor 
in any way a part of the same clause of the expression to 
which that foot belongs, but a separate monosyllabic word, 
frequently one, such as and, hut, if or, of, even the, or a, 
or an, among the slightest and most rapidly uttered in 
the language, and belonging syntactically and in natural 
utterance to the succeeding line. "We may be said to 
have the strongest or most illustrious exemplifications of 
this mode of versifying in the 

" Labitur ripa, Jove non probante, u — 

— xorius amnis," 

and other similar exhibitions of "linked sweetness" in 



THE VEESE. 37 

Horace. Pindar, and the Greek dramatists in their choral 
passages (if we may accept the common arrangement). — 
to sav nothing of sundry modern imitations in the same 
bold style, eyen in our own vernacular, which need not 
be quoted. Such a construction of verse, however, when 
it does not go the length of actually cutting a word in 
two, is in perfect accordance with the principles of our 
English prosodical system ; for, besides that the and, or, 
of, or if is not really a slighter syllable than the termina- 
tion -ty or -ly, for instance, which is so frequently found 
in the same position, these and other similar monosylla- 
bles are constantly recognized, under the second of the 
above laws of modification, as virtually accented for the 
purposes of the verse in other places of the line. Still 
when a syllable so slight meets us in the place where the 
normal, natural, and customary rhythm demands the 
greatest pressure, the effect is always somewhat startling. 
This unexpectedness of effect, indeed, may be regarded 
as in many cases the end aimed at, and that which 
prompts or recommends the construction in question. 
And it does undoubtedly produce a certain variety and 
liveliness. It is fittest, therefore, for the lighter kinds of 
poetry. It is only there that it can without impropriety 
be made a characteristic of the verse. It partakes too 
much of the nature of a trick or a deception to be em- 
ployed except sparingly in poetry of the manliest or most 
massive order. Yet there too it may be introduced now 
and then with the happiest effect, more especially in the 
drama, where variety and vivacity of style are so much 
more requisite than rhythmical fulness or roundness, and 
the form of dialogue, always demanding a natural ease 
and freedom, will justify even irregularities and audacities 
of expression which might be rejected by the more stately 
march of epic composition. It has something of the same 
bounding life which Ulysses describes Dioined as showing 
in " the manner of his gait": — 



38 PROLEGOMENA. 

" He rises on the toe : that spirit of his 
In aspiration lifts him from the earth." 

Two things are observable with regard to Shakespeare's 
employment of this peculiar construction of verse : — 

1. It will be found upon an examination of his Plays 
that there are some of them in which it occurs very rarely, 
or perhaps scarcely at all. and others in which it is abun- 
dant. It was certainly a habit of writing which grew 
upon him after he once gave in to it. Among the Plays 
in which there is little or none of it are some of those 
known to be amongst his earliest ; and some that were 
undoubtedly the product of the latest period of his life 
are among those that have the most of it. It is probable 
that the different stages in the frequency with which it 
is indulged in correspond generally to the order of suc- 
cession in which the Plays were written. A certain pro- 
gress of style may be traced more or less distinctly in 
every writer ; and there is no point of style which more 
marks a poetic writer than the character of his versifica- 
tion. It is this, for instance, which furnishes us with 
the most conclusive or at least the clearest evidence that 
the play of King Henry the Eighth cannot have been writ- 
ten throughout by Shakespeare. It is a point of style 
which admits of precise appreciation to a degree much 
beyond most others ; and there is no other single indica- 
tion which can be compared with it as an element in de- 
termining the chronology of the Plays. It is therefore 
extremely difficult to believe that the three Roman plays, 
Julius CcBsar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus, 
can all belong to the same period (Malone assigns them 
severally to the years 1607, 1608, and 1610), seeing that 
the second and third are among the plays in which verses 
having in the tenth place an unemphatic monosyllable of 
the kind in question are of most frequent occurrence, 
while the only instances of anything of the sort in the 
first are, I believe, the following : — < 



THE YEBSE. 39 

54. "I had as lief not be as live to be 

In awe of such a thing as I myself." 

54. " And Cassius is 

A wretched creature, and must bend his body." 

54. " A man of such a feeble temper should 

So get the start of the majestic world." 

55. "I do believe that these applauses are 

For some new honours that are heaped on Caesar. 

155. " All the interim is 

Like a phantasma." 

307. " Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may 
Have an immediate freedom of repeal." 

355. " And am moreover suitor, that I may 
Produce his body to the market-place." 

358. " And that we are contented Caesar shall 

Have all true rites and awful ceremonies," 

406. " But yesterday the word of Caesar might 
Have stood against the world." 

494. " Or here, or at 

The Capitol." 

Not only does so comparatively rare an indulgence in 
it show that the habit of this kind of versification was as 
yet not fully formed, but in one only of these ten in- 
stances have we it carried nearly so far as it repeatedly is 
in some other Plays : he, and is, and should, and may, and 
shall, and might, and are, all verbs, though certainly not 
emphatic, will yet any of them allow the voice to rest 
upon it with a considerably stronger pressure than such 
lightest and slightest of "winged words " as and, of, hut, 
if, that (the relative or conjunction), who, which, than, 
as, of, to, with, for, etc. The only decided or true and 
perfect instance of the peculiarity is the last in the list. 

2. In some of the Plays at least the prosody of many 
of the verses constructed upon the principle under con- 
sideration has been misconceived by every editor, includ- 
ing the most recent. Let us take, for example, the play of 



40 rROLEGOME^A. 

Coriolanus, in which, as has just been observed, such 
verses are very numerous. Here, in the first place, we 
have a good many instances in which the versification is 
correctly exhibited in the First Eolio, and, of course, as 
might be expected, in all subsequent editions ; such as — 

" Only in strokes, but with thy grim looks and 
The thunder-like percussion of thy sounds." — i. 4. 

" I got them in my country's service, when 
Some certain of your brethren roared and ran." — ii. 3. 

u The thwartings of your dispositions, if 
You had not showed them how you were disposed." — iii. 2. 

" Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and 
My friends of noble touch, when I am forth." — iv. 2. 

" Permitted by our dastard nobles, who 
Have all forsook me." — iv. 5. 

" Mistake me not, to save my life ; for if 
I had feared death, of all the men i' the world." — iv. 5. 

" Had we no quarrel else * to Rome, but that 
Thou art thence banished, we would muster all." — iv. 5. 

* The reading of all the copies is "No other quarrel else ; " but it 
is evident that other is merely the author's first word, which he must 
be supposed to have intended to strike out, if he did not actually do so, 
when he resolved to substitute else. The prosody and the sense agree 
in admonishing us that both words cannot stand. So in Antony and 
Cleopatra, iv. 10, in the line " To the young Roman boy she hath sold 
me, and I fall ; " young is evidently only the word first intended to be 
used, and never could be meant to be retained after the expression 
Boman boy was adopted. Another case of the same kind is unquestion- 
ably that of the word old in the line (As You Like It, iv. 3). — 

" Under an (old) oak, whose boughs were mossed with age." 

Nor can I have any doubt that another text, equally familiar to the 
modern ear, has suffered a similar corruption, — Bassanio's — • 

" In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft, 
I shot his fellow of the self-same flight 
The self- same way with more advised watch, 
To find the other forth ; and by adventuring both 
I oft found both." 



THE YEKSE. 41 

"You have holp to ravish your own daughters, and 
To melt the city leads upon your pates." — iv. 6. 

" Your temples burned in their cement ; and 
Y^our franchises, whereon you stood, confined." — iv. 6. 

" Upon the voice of occupation, and 
The breath of garlic-eaters." — iv. 6. 

" I do not know what witchcraft's in him ; but 
Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat." — iv. 7. 

" Mine ears against your suits are stronger than 
Y'our gates against my force." — v. 3. 

" As if Olympus to a molehill should 
In supplication nod." — v. 3. 

" Hath an aspect of intercession, which, 
Great Nature cries, Deny not." — v. 3. 

" Aundius, and you Yolsces, mark ; for we'll 
Hear nought from Eome in private." — v. 3. 

" That thou restrain' st from me the duty which 
To a mother's part belongs." — v. 3. 

"And hale him up and down ; all swearing, if 
The Eoman ladies bring not comfort home." — v. 4. 

" The city posts by this hath entered, and 
Intends to appear before the people, hoping." — v. 5. 

" I seemed his follower, not partner ; and 
He waged me with his countenance, as if 
I had been mercenary." — v. o. 

" At a few drops of women's rheum, which are 
As cheap as lies." — v. o. 

"With our own charge ; making a treaty where 
There was a yielding." — v. 5. 

" That prosperously I have attempted, and 
With bloody passage led your wars, even to 
The gates of Eome." — v. o. 



To Jind forth may, I apprehend, be safely pronounced to be neither 
English nor sense. The forth has apparently been transferred from the 
preceding line, which was either originally written " The same way 
forth," or, more probably, was so corrected after having been origin- 
ally written " The self-same way." 



42 PROLEGOMENA. 

" Breaking his oath and resolution, like 
A twist of rotten silk." — v. 5. 

% " Though in this city he 
Hath widowed and unchilded many a one." — v. 5. 

These instances are abundantly sufficient to prove 
the prevalence in the Play of the peculiarity under con- 
sideration, and also its recognition, whether consciously 
and deliberately or otherwise does not matter, by the 
editors. But further, we have also some instances in 
which the editors most attached to the original printed 
text have ventured to go the length of rearranging the 
verse upon this principle where it stands otherwise in the 
First Folio. Such are the following : 

" Commit the war of white and damask in 
Their nicely gauded cheeks." — ii. 1. 

Here the Folio includes their in the first line. 

" A kinder value of the people than 
He hath hereto prized them at." — ii. 2. 

The Folio gives this as prose. 

" To allay my rages and revenges with 
Your colder reasons." — v. 3. 

The Folio gives from " My rages " inclusive as a line. 

After this it is surely very strange to find in our 
modern editions such manifest and gross misconceptions 
of the versification as the following arrangements ex- 
hibit : — 

"My gentle Marcius, worthy Caius, 
And — By deed-achieving honour duly named." — ii. 1. 

" I have seen the dumh men throng to see him, 
And — The blind to hear him speak."— ii. 1. 

" Have made them mutes, silenced their pleaders, 
And — Dispropertied their freedoms." — ii. 1. 

" Having determined of the Volsces, 
And — To send for Titus Lartius." — ii. 2. 

" To gratify his noble service, that hath 
Thus— Stood for his country." — ii. 2. 



THE YEESE. 43 

"That valour is the chiefest virtue, 
And — Most dignifies the haver." — ii. 2. 

" Pray you, go fit you to trie custom ; 
And— Take to you, as your predecessors have." — ii. 2. 

" I have seen and heard of; for your voices 

Have — Done many tilings, some less, some more ; your voice.'' 

— ii. 3. 
" Endue you with the people's voice : 

Remains — That, in the official marks invested, 

You — Anon do meet the senate." — ii. 3. 

" Would think upon you for your voices, 
And — Translate his malice towards you into love." — ii. 3. 

" The apprehension of his present portance, 
Which. — Most gibingly, ungravely, he did fashion."— ii. 3. 

" For the mutable, rank-scented many, 
Let them — Regard me as I do not flatter, 
And — Therein behold themselves." — iii. 1. 

" That would depopulate the city, 
And — Be every man himself." — iii. 1. 

In all these instances the words which I have separated 
from those that follow them by a dash belong to the pre- 
ceding line ; and, nearly every time that the first of the 

two lines is thns put ont of joint, the rhythm of both is 
ruined. 

The modern editor who has shown the most disposition 
to tamper with the old text in the matter of the versifi- 
cation is Steevens. The metrical arrangement of the 
First Folio is undoubtedly wrong in thousands of in- 
stances, and it is very evident that the conception which 
the persons by whom the printing was superintended had 
of verse was extremely imperfect and confused. They 
would be just as likely to go wrong as right whenever 
any intricacy or indistinctness in the manuscript threw 
them upon their own resources of knowledge and critical 
sagacity. But Steevens set about the work of correction 
on false principles. Nothing less would satisfy him than 
to reduce the prosody of the natural dramatic blank verse 



44 PROLEGOMENA. 

of Shakespeare, the characteristic product of the sixteenth 
century, to the standard of the trim rhyming couplets 
into which Pope shaped his polished epigrams in the 
eighteenth. It is a mistake, however, to speak of Stee- 
vens as having no ear for verse. His ear was a practised 
and correct enough one, only that it had been trained ir 
a narrow school. Malone, on the other hand, had no 
notion whatever of verse beyond what he could obtain by 
counting the syllables on his fingers. Everything else 
but the mere number of the syllables went with him for 
nothing. This is demonstrated by all that he has written 
on the subject. And, curiously enough, Mr James Bos- 
well, the associate of his labours, appears to have been 
endowed with nearly an equal share of the same singular 
insensibility. 

VII. SHAKESPEARE'S JULIUS 03ESAR. 

Shakespeare's Julius Ccesar was first printed, as far as 
is known, in the First Folio collection of his Plays, pub- 
lished in 1623 ; it stands there between Timon of Athens 
and Macbeth, filling, in the division of the volume which 
begins with Coriolanus and extends to the end, being that 
occupied with the Tragedies, — which is preceded by those 
containing the Comedies and the Histories, — the double- 
columned pages from 109 to 130 inclusive.* Here, at 
the beginning and over each page, it is entitled "The 
Tragedie of Julius Caesar;" but in the Catalogue at the 
beginning of the volume it is entered as " The Life and 
Death of Julius Caesar;" other entries in the list being, 
among the Histories, " The Life and Death of King 
John," "The Life and Death of Eichard the Third," 
" The Life of King Henry the Eighth," and, among the 
Tragedies, "The Tragedy of Coriolanus," "The Tragedy 
of Macbeth," "The Tragedy of Hamlet," "King Lear," 
" Othello, the Moore of Venice." In the Second Folio 

* There is a break in the pagination from 101 to 108 inclusive. 



THE JULIUS CLESJlK. 45 

(1632), where this series of pages includes Troilus and 
Cress/ da, " The Tragedy of Julius Csesar," as it is entered 
both in the running title and in the Catalogue, extends 
from page 129 to 150 inclusive. In both editions the 
Play is divided into Acts, but not into Scenes ; although 
the First Act is headed in both " Actus Primus. Serena 
Prima," There is no list in either edition of the Drama- 
tis Persons, as there is with several others of the Plays. 

Maione, in his "Attempt to ascertain the Order in 
which the Plays of Shakespeare were written," assigning 
Hamlet to the' year 1600, Othello to 1604, Lear to 1605, 
Macbeth to 1606, Antony and Cleopatra to 1608, and Corio- 
lanus to 1610, fixes upon the year 1607 as the date of the 
composition of Julius Ccesar. But nothing can be more 
inconclusive than the grounds upon which he comes to 
this conclusion. His reasoning is principally, or, indeed, 
we may say almost wholly, founded upon the fact of a 
rhyming play on the same subject by William Alexander, 
afterwards Earl of Sterline, or Stirling, having been first 
printed at London in that year (it had been originally 
printed in Scotland three years before), which he thinks 
may be presumed to have preceded Shakespeare's. 
" Shakespeare, we know," he observes, in his disquisition 
on the Chronological Order {Variorum edition, II. 445- 
451), "formed at least twelve plays on fables that had 
been unsuccessfully managed by other poets ; but no 
contemporary writer was daring enough to enter the lists 
with him in his lifetime, or to model into a drama a 
subject which had already employed his pen : and it is 
not likely that Lord Sterline, who was then a very 
young man, and had scarcely unlearned the Scotch idiom, 
should have been more hardy than any other poet of 
that age." Elsewhere (XII. 2) he says : "In the two 
Plays many parallel passages are found, which might per- 
haps have proceeded only from the two authors drawing 
from the same source. However, there are some reasons 



4G TKOLEGOMENA. 

for thinking the coincidence more than accidental." 
The only additional reason he gives is that " a pas- 
sage in The Tempest (" The cloud-capped towers, etc.") 
seems to have been copied from one in Darius, another 
Play of Lord Sterline's, printed at Edinburgh in 1603." 
Upon the subject of these alleged imitations by Shake- 
speare of one of the most uninspired of his contemporaries, 
see Mr Knight's article on this William Alexander in the 
" Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion 
of Useful Knowledge," Vol. II. pp. 4-7. They may safely 
be pronounced to be one and all purely imaginary. The 
passage in Darius (which Play is also in rhyme), it may 
be noted, was removed by Lord Stirling from his Play 
when he reprinted it in a revised form in 1637. This 
would have been a singularly self-denying course for the 
noble versifier to have taken if the notion that it had been 
either plagiarized or imitated by the great English drama- 
tist had ever crossed his mind. The resemblance, in fact, 
is no greater than would be almost sure to occur in 
the case of any two writers in verse, however widely re- 
mote in point of genius, taking up the same thought, 
which, like the one we have here, is in itself almost one 
of the commonplaces of poetical or rhetorical declamation, 
however pre-eminently it has been arrayed by Shake- 
speare in all the "pride, pomp, and circumstance of 
glorious ivords" 

A Latin Play upon the subject of the death of Caesar 
— " Epilogus Csesaris Interfecti" — the production of a 
Dr Richard Eedes, whom Meres, in his Wit's Common- 
wealth, published in 1598, mentions as one of the best 
tragic writers of the time, appears to have been brought 
out at Christ's Church, Oxford, in 1582. And there is 
also an anonymous English Play of Shakespeare's age, 
entitled " The Tragedy of Caesar and Pompey, or Caesar's 
Eevenge," of which two editions have come down to us, 
one bearing the date of 1607 (the same year in which 



THE JULIUS C^SAE. 47 

Alexander's Julius Ccesar was printed at London), the 
other without date, but apparently earlier. This Play is 
often confounded with another of the same title by G-eorge 
Chapman, which, however, was not printed till 1631. 
The anonymous Play appears to have been first produced 
in 1594. See Uensloioe s Diary, by Collier, p. 44. Ma- 
lone observes that " in the running title it is called The 
Tragedy of Julius Ccesar ; perhaps the better to impose 
it on the public for the performance of Shakespeare." 
It is not pretended, however, that it and Shakespeare's 
Play have anything in common.* 

Shakespeare's Julius Ccesar is alluded to as one of the 
most popular of his Plays by Leonard Digges (a younger 
brother of Sir Dudley, the popular parliament man in 
the time of Charles I., and afterwards Master of the 
Bolls), in a copy of verses prefixed to the Pirst Polio : — 

" Xor shall I e'er believe or think thee dead, . . . 
. . . till I hear a scene more nobly take 
Than when thy half-sword parlying Romans spake." 

In the Prologue, also, to Beaumont and Fletcher's 
tragedy entitled The False One,\ the subject of which is 
the loves of Caesar and Cleopatra in Egypt, the authors 
vindicate themselves from the charge of having taken up 
the same ground with Shakespeare in the present Play: — 

* From a comedy called Every Woman in her Rumour, printed in 
1609, Malone quotes a passage from which he infers that there was an 
ancient droll or pnppet-shew on the subject of Julius Caesar : — "I 
have seen the City of Nineveh and Julius Caesar acted by mammets." 
" I formerly supposed," Malone adds, " that this droll was formed on 
the play before us ; but have lately observed that it is mentioned with 
other motions (Jonas, jSmevie, and the Destruction of Jerusalem) in 
Marston's Dutch Courtesan, printed in 1605, and was probably of a 
much older date.' , {Chronological Order, 449.) But it is not so clear 
that the mention of the motion, or puppet-shew, in 1605 would make 
it impossible that it should have been posterior to Shakespeare's Play. 

f It has been disputed whether by The False One we are to under- 
stand Caesar or another character in the Play, the villain Septimius. 
A friend suggests that it may be Cleopatra that is intended to be so 
designated. 



48 PROLEGOMENA. 

" Sure to tell 
Of Caesar's amorous heats, aud how he fell 
1' the Capitol, can never be the same 
To the judicious.' ' 

But in what year The False One was brought out is not 
known. It certainly was not before 1608 or 1609. 

Finally, it has been remarked that the quarrel scene 
between Brutus and Cassius in Shakespeare's Play has 
evidently formed the model for a similar one between the 
two friends Melantius and Amintor in the Third Act of 
Beaumont and Fletcher's Maid's Tragedy. All that is 
known, however, of the date of that Play is, that it was 
probably brought out before 1611, in which year another 
Play entitled The Second Maiden's Tragedy was licensed. 
But even this is doubtful ; for there is no resemblance, or 
connexion of any kind, except that of the names, between 
the two Plays.* 

On the whole, it may be inferred from these slight evi- 
dences that the present Play can hardly be assigned to a 
later date than the year 1607 ; but there is nothing to 
prove that it may not be of considerably earlier date. 

It is evident that the character and history of Julius 
Caesar had taken a strong hold of Shakespeare's imagina- 

* " This tragedy," says Malone, " (as I learn from a MS. of Mr 
Oldys) was formerly in the possession of John Warburton, Esq., Som- 
erset Herald, and since in the library of the Marquis of Lansdown." 
[Chronological Order, 450.) It is one of the three Plays which 
escaped destruction by Mr AVarburton's cook. It has now been printed 
"from the original MS., 1611, in the Lansdown Collection" (British 
Museum), in the First No, of The Old English Drama, Lon. 1824, 
-25, the eight Nos. of which, making two vols., are commonly regarded 
as making a supplement to the last, or 12 volume, edition of Dodsley. 
The title of The Second Maiden's Tragedy appears to have been given 
to the present Play by Sir George Buc, the master of the Revels. The 
MS., he states, had no name inscribed on it. On the back of the MS. 
the Play is attributed to William Goughe. Afterwards William has been 
altered to Thomas. Then this name has been obliterated, and George 
Chapman substituted. Finally, this too has been scored through, and 
the authorship assigned to William Shakspear. 



THE JULIUS C^ISAE. 49 

tion. There is perhaps no other historical character who 
is so repeatedly alluded to throughout his Plays. 

" There was never anything so sudden," says the dis- 
guised Rosalind in As You Like It (v. 2) to Orlando, 
speaking of the manner in which his brother Oliver and 
her cousin (or sister, as she calls her) Celia had fallen in 
love with one another, " but the fight of two rams, and 
Caesar's thrasonical brag of I came, saw, and overcame : 
for your brother and my sister no sooner met, but they 
looked ; no sooner looked, but they loved ; no sooner 
loved, but they sighed;" etc. 

" ! such a day," exclaims Lord Bardolph in the Se- 
cond Part of King Henry the Fourth (i. 1) to old North- 
umberland in his misannouncement of the issue of the 
field of Shrewsbury, 

" So fought, so honoured, and so fairly won, 

Came not till now to dignify the times 

Since Caesar's fortunes." 

And afterwards (in iv. 3) we have FalstafFs magnificent 
gasconade: — "I have speeded hither with the very ex- 
tremest inch [?] of possibility : I have foundered nine- 
score and odd posts ; and here, travel-tainted as I am, 
have, in my pure and immaculate valour, taken Sir John 
Coleville of the Dale, a most furious [famous ?] knight, 
and valorous enemy. But what of that ? He saw me, 
and yielded ; that I may justly say, with the hook-nosed 
fellow of Borne, I came, saw, and overcame." 

" But now behold," says the Chorus in the Fifth Act 
of King Henry the Fifth, describing the triumphant re- 
turn of the English monarch from the conquest of Erance, 
" In the quick forge and working-house of thought, 
How London doth pour out her citizens. 
The mayor, and all his brethren, in hest sort, 
Like to the senators of the antique Rome, 
With the plebeians swarming at their heels, 
Go forth, and fetch their conquering Caesar in." 

In the three Parts of King Henry the Sixth, which are 



50 PBOLEGOME^A. 

so thickly sprinkled with classical allusions of all kinds, 
there are several to the great Eoman Dictator. " Henry 
the Fifth! thy ghost I invocate ;" the Duke of Bedford 
apostrophizes his deceased brother in the First Part 

" Prosper this realm, keep it from civil broils ! 
Combat with adverse planets in the heavens ! 
A far more glorious star thy soul will make 
Than Julius Csesar, or bright Cassiope."* 

In the next Scene the Maid, setting out to raise the siege 
of Orleans, and deliver her king and country, compares 
herself to 

' That proud insulting ship 
Which Caesar and his fortunes bare at once.' , 

In the Second Part (iv. 1) we have Suffolk, when hurried 
away to execution by the seamen who had captured him, 
consoling himself with — 

" Great men oft die by vile bezonians : 
A Roman sworder and banditto slave 
Murdered sweet Tully ; Brutus' bastard hand 
Stabbed Julius Caesar ; savage islanders 
Pompey the great ; and Suffolk dies by pirates." 

* The Cassiope is supplied by Mr Collier's MS. annotator. But 
Theobald had proposed Cassiopeia, and not without supporting his 
conjecture by some ingenious and plausible reasoning. See his letter 
to Warburton, dated 29th January 1730, in Nichols's Illustrations, II. 
451 — 453. This, then, is one of those remarkable instances in which 
the recently discovered MS. is found to concur with a previously pub- 
lished conjectural emendation, — like two independent witnesses testify- 
ing separately to the same fact, and so at once adding confirmation to 
the fact and corroborating each other's testimony, sagacity, or judgment. 
It is proper to add, however, that Theobald was afterwards induced to 
give up this reading. Writing again to "Warburton on the 12th of 
February, he says : — " I have received the pleasure of yours dated 
February 3, with a kind and judicious refutation of Cassiopeia; and, 
with a just deference to your most convincing reasons, I shall with 
great cheerfulness banish it as a bad and unsupported conjecture." 
[Illustrations, II. 478). 



THE JULIUS CJESAK. 51 

And afterwards (iv. 7) we have Lord Say, in somewhat 
similar circumstances, thus appealing to Cade and his mob 
of men of Kent : — 

" Hear me but speak, and bear me where you will. 
Kent, in the Commentaries Caesar writ, 
Is termed the civilest place of all this isle ; 
Sweet is the country, because full of riches ; 
The people liberal, valiant, active, worthy ; 
^Vhich makes me hope you are not void of pity." 

" O traitors ! murderers !" Queen Margaret in the Third 
Part (v. 5) shrieks out in her agony and rage when the 
Prince her son is butchered before her eyes ; — 

" They that stabbed Caesar shed no blood at all, 
Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame, 
If this foul deed were by to sequel it : 
He was a man ; this, in respect, a child ; 
And men ne'er spend their fury on a child." 

In King Richard the Third (Hi. 1) is a passage of great 
pregnancy. " Did Julius Caesar build that place, my 
lord?" the young Prince asks Buckingham when it is 
proposed that he shall retire for a day or two to the 
Tower before his coronation. And. when informed in 
reply that the mighty Roman at least began the building, 
"Is it," he further inquires, 

'•upon record, or else reported 
Successively from age to age, he built it ? " 

" It is upon record, my gracious lord," answers Bucking- 
ham. On which the wise royal boy rejoins, — 

" But say, my lord, it were not registered. 
Methinks the truth should live from age to age, 
As 'twere retailed to all posterity, 
Even to the general all- ending day. 5 ' 

And then, after a ' ; "What say you, uncle r ". he explains 
the great thought that was working in his mind in these 
striking words : — 

z 2 



52 PROLEGOMENA. 

" That Julius Caesar was a famous man : 
With what his valour did enrich his wit 
His wit set down to make his valour live. 
Death makes no conquest of this conqueror,* 
For now he lives in fame, though not in life." 

Far away from anything Boinan as the fable and locality 
of Hamlet are, various passages testify how much Caesar 
was in the mind of Shakespeare while writing that Play. 
First, we have the famous passage (i. 1) so closely re- 
sembling one in the Second Scene of the Second Act of 
Julius Ccesar : — 

" In the most high and palmy state of Rome, 
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, 
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead 
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets ; 
As f stars with trains of fire, and dews of blood, 
Disasters in the sun ; and the moist star, 
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands, 
"Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse." J 

Then there is (iii. 2) the conversation between Hamlet 
and Polonius, touching the histrionic exploits of the latter 
in his university days: — "I did enact Julius Caesar: I 
was killed i 5 the Capitol ; Brutus killed me." " It was a 
Irute part of him to kill so capital a calf there " (surely, 
by the bye, to be spoken aside, though not so marked). — 
Lastly, there is the Prince's rhyming moralization (v. 1) : — 

" Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, 
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away. 
0, that that earth which kept the world in awe 
Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw ! " 

* " His conqueror " is the reading of all the Folios. " This " was 
restored by Theobald from the Quarto of 1597, and has been adopted 
by Malone and most modern editors. 

f Something is evidently wrong here ; but even Mr Collier's anno- 
tator gives us no help. 

X This passage, however, is found only in the Quartos, and is omitted 
in all the Folios. Nor, although retained by Mr Collier in his " re- 
gulated" text, is it stated to be restored by his MS. annotator. 



THE JULIUS C^ISAE. 53 

Many notices of Caesar occur, as might be expected, in 
Cymleline. Such are the boast of Posthumus to his friend 
Philario (ii. 4) of the valour of the Britons : — 

" Our countrymen 
Are men more ordered than when Julius Cfesar 
Smiled at their lack of skill, but found their courage 
Worthy his frowning at ; " 

Various passages in the First Scene of the Third Act : — 

" When Julius Caesar (whose remembrance yet 
Lives in men's eyes, and will to ears and tongues 
Be theme and hearing ever) was in this Britain, 
And conquered it, Cassibelan, thine uncle 
(Famous in Caesar's praises no whit less 
Than in his feats deserving it)," etc. ; 

" There be many Caesars, 
Ere such another Julius ; " 

" A kind of conquest 
Caesar made here ; but made not here his brag 
Of came, and saio, and overcame : with shame 
(The first that ever touched him) he was carried 
From off our coast twice beaten ; and his shipping 
(Poor ignorant baubles !) on our terrible seas, 
Like egg-shells moved upon their surges, cracked 
As easily 'gainst our rocks. For joy whereof 
The famed Cassibelan, who was once at point 
(0 giglot Fortune !) to master Caesar's sword, 
Made Lud's town with rejoicing fires bright, 
And Britons strut with courage ; " 

" Our kingdom is stronger than it was at that time; and, as I said, 
there is no more such Caesars ; other of them may have crooked noses ; 
but to owe such straight arms, none ; '*" 

" Caesar's ambition 
(Which swelled so much that it did almost stretch 
The sides o' the world) against all colour, here, 
Did put the yoke upon us ; which to shake off 
Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon 
Ourselves to be." 

Lastly, we have a few references in Antony and Cleo- 
patra ; such as : — 



54 PKOLEGOME^A. 

" Broad-fronted Caesar, 
When thon -wast here above the ground, I was 
A morsel for a monarch " (i. 4) ; 

i( Julius Caesar, 
"Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted" (it. 6) ; 

" "What was it 
That moved pale Gassius to conspire ? And what 
Made the all-honoured, honest, Eoman Brutus, 
"With the armed rest, courtiers of beauteous freedom, 
To drench the Capitol, but that they would 
Have one man but a man ? " (ii. 6) ; 

" Your fine Egyptian cookery 
Shall have the fame. I have heard that Julius Caesar 
Grew fat with feasting there " (ii. 6) ; 

" When Antony found Julius Caesar dead, 
He cried almost to roaring ; and he wept 
When at Philippi he found Brutus slain " (Hi. 2) ; 

Thy reus. — " Give me grace to lay 
My duty on your hand. 

Cleopatra. — " Your Caesar's father oft, 
When he hath mused of taking kingdoms in, 
Bestowed his lips on that unworthy place 
As it rained kisses " (Hi. 11). 

These passages taken all together, and some of them 
more particularly, will probably be thought to afford a 
considerably more comprehensive representation of " the 
mighty Julius" than the Play which bears his name. 
We cannot be sure that that Play was so entitled by 
Shakespeare. " The Tragedy of Julius Caesar," or " The 
Life and Death of Julius Caesar," would describe no more 
than the half of it. Caesar's part in it terminates with 
the opening of the Third Act ; after that, on to the end, 
we have nothing more of him but his dead body, his ghost, 
and his memory. The Play might more fitly be called 
after Brutus than after Caesar. And still more remark- 
able is the partial delineation that we have of the man. 



THE JULIUS CJBSAB. 55 

"We have a distinct exhibition of little else beyond his 
vanity and arrogance, relieved and set off by bis good- 
nature or affability. He is brought before ns only as 
" the spoilt child of victory." All the grandeur and pre- 
dominance of his character is kept in the background or 
in the shade — to be inferred, at most, from what is said 
by the other dramatis persons — by Cassius on the one 
hand and by Antony on the other in the expression of 
their own diametrically opposite natures and aims, and 
in a very few words by the calmer, milder, and juster 
Brutus — nowhere manifested by himself. It might almost 
be suspected that the complete and full-length Caesar 
had been carefully reserved for another drama. Even 
Antony is only half delineated here, to be brought for- 
ward again on another scene : Caesar needed such repro- 
duction much more, and was as well entitled to a stage 
which he should tread without an equal. He is only a 
subordinate character in the present Play ; his death is 
but an incident in the progress of the plot. The first 
figures, standing conspicuously out from all the rest, are 
Brutus and Cassius. 

Some of the passages that have been collected are fur- 
ther curious and interesting, as being other renderings of 
conceptions that are also found in the present Play, and 
as consequently furnishing data both for the problem of 
the chronological arrangement of the Plays and for the 
general history of the mind and artistic genius of the 
writer. After all the comment at or ship and criticism of 
which the works of Shakespeare have been the subject, 
they still remain to be studied in their totality with a 
special reference to himself. The man Shakespeare as 
read in his works — Shakespeare as there revealed, not 
only in his genius and intellectual powers, but in his 
character, disposition, temper, opinions, tastes, prejudices, 
— is a book vet to be written. 



56 PBOLEG-OXENA. 

It is remarkable that not only in the present Play, but 
also in Hamlet and in Antony and Cleopatra, the assassin- 
ation of Caesar should be represented as having taken 
place in the Capitol. From the Prologue, quoted above, 
to Beaumont and Fletcher's tragedy of The False One, 
too, it would appear as if this had become the established 
popular belief; but the notion may very probably be 
older than Shakespeare. 

Another deviation from the literalities of history which 
we find in the Play, is the making the Triumvirs in the 
opening scene of the Fourth Act hold their meeting in 
Eome. But this may have been done deliberately, and 
neither from ignorance nor forgetfulness. 

I have had no hesitation in discarding, with all the 
modern editors, such absurd perversions as Antonio, Fla- 
vio, Lucio, which never can have proceeded from Shake- 
speare, wherever they occur in the old copies ; and in 
adopting Theobald's rectification of Murellus (for Manil- 
las), which also cannot be supposed to be anything else 
than a mistake made in the printing or transcription. 
But it seems hardly worth while to change our familiar 
Portia into Forcia (although Johnson, without being 
followed, has adopted that perhaps more correct spelling 
in his edition). 

The peculiarity of the form given to the name of 
Caesar's wife in this Play does not seem to have been no- 
ticed. The only form of the name known to antiquity is 
Calpurnia. And that is also the name even in North's 
English translation of Plutarch, Shakespeare's great au- 
thority.* The Calphumia of all the old copies of the 
Play, adopted by all the modern editors, may be nothing 
better than an invention of the printers. I have not, how- 

* Mr Senior, in his late reprint of Bacon's Essays, at p. 99, gives 
the name Calfumia ; but that form is not to be found, I apprehend, 
in any of the old copies. 



THE JULIUS CJ3SAB. 57 

ever, ventured to rectify it. in the possibility that, al- 
though a corrupt form, it may be one which Shakespeare 
found established in the language and in possession of 
the public ear. In that case, it will be to be classed with 
Anthony i Brotheus, and Bosphorus, the common modern 
corruption of the classic Bosporus, which even Gibbon 
does not hesitate to use. 

The name of the person called Decius Brutus through- 
out the play was Decimus Brutus. Decius is not, like 
Decimus. a pramoinen. but a gentilitial name. The error, 
however, is as old as the edition of Plutarch's Greek text 
produced by Henry Stephens in 1572 ; # and it occurs 
likewise in the accompanying Latin translation, and both 
in Amyot's and Dacier's French, as well as in North's Eng- 
lish. It is also found in Philemon Holland's translation 
of Suetonius, published in 1606. Lord Stirling in his 
Julius Ccbsot, probably misled in like manner by North, 
has fallen into the same mistake with Shakespeare. That 
Decius is no error of the press is shown by its occurrence 
sometimes in the verse in places where Decimus could 
not stand. 

Finally, it may be noticed that it was really this Deci- 
mus Brutus who had been the special friend and favourite 
of Caesar, not Marcus Junius Brutus the conspirator, as 
represented in the Play. In his misconception upon 
this point our English dramatist has been followed by 
Voltaire in his tragedy of La Jfort de Cesar, which is 
written avowedly in imitation of the Julius Ccesar of 
Shakespeare. 

The wholly new readings in the Play of Julius Ccesar 
which Mr Collier appears to have obtained from his 
manuscript annotator are the following, twenty-three in 
number : — 

* 'El' C£ TOV7({> il'iKLOQ BpOVTOQ STTiKX/yTU' ' AX3Ti'0^. Yit. Cc?j. 

p. 1354. 



58 PKOLEGOMENA. 

ACT I. 

102. He was quick mettled when he went to school. 
But this, although given in the Regulated Text of the 
Plays, is not noticed either in the Notes and Emendations 
or in the List. 

109. These are their seasons, — they are natural. 

ACT II. 
187. And after seem to chide 'em. This shall mark. 
202. Enjoy the heavy honey -dew of slumber. 

ACT III. 
285. That touches us? Ourself shall be last served. 
303. Casca. Are we all ready? — Cess. What is now amiss, &c 

But this is not noticed in the List. 

305. These crouchinys, and these lowly courtesies. 
— Low-crouched courtesies, and base spaniel fawning. 
346. Our arms in strength of welcome, and our hearts. 
363. A curse shall light upon the loins of men. 
461. And things unlikely charge my fantasy. 

ACT XV. 

496. And graze on commons. 

541. I shall be glad to learn of abler men. 

542. I said, an older soldier, not a better. 

But this is only given in the Regulated Text. 

559. A flatterer's would not, though they did appear. 
620. Come on refreshed, new-hearted, and encouraged. 

ACT V. 

687. The posture of your blows is yet unknown. 
690. While damned Casca, like a cur, behind. 

But this is only given in the Regulated Text. 

692. Have added slaughter to the word of traitor. 

704. Coming from Sardis, on owe forward ensign. 

709. To stay the providence of those high powers. 

711. Must end that work the ides of March bey an. 

But this is only given in the Regulated Text. 

794. He only, in a yenerous honest thought 

Of common good to all, made one of them. 



THE JULirS CESAR. 59 

And the emendations in the MS. also include the fol- 
lowing eleven readings which had been conjecturally pro- 
posed before its discovery : — 

ACT I. 

56. That her wide walls encompassed but one man. 

57. Under such hard conditions as this time. 
130. In favour's like the work we have in hand. 

ACT II. 
238. We are two lions, littered in one day. 
246. Of evils imminent ; and on her knee. 

ACT III. 
305. Into the law of children. Be not fond. 
349. Signed in thy spoil, and crimsoned in thy death 
358. Have all due rites, and lawful ceremonies. 
459. I heard them say, Brutus and Cassius. 

ACT IY. 

530. Brutus, bay not me. 

ACT V. 
709. The term of life ; arming myself with patience. 

Finally, the reading of the First Folio, which had been 
altered in the Second, is restored by the MS. annotator 
in the following ten instances : — 

ACT I. 

50. That I profess myself m banqueting. 

54. But for my single self. 

89. But there's no heed to be taken of them 

ACT II. 

160. Buried in their cloaks. 

199. Caius Ligarius doth bear Caesar hard. 

233. The noise of battle hurtled in the air. 

ACT IV. 

529. I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon. 
63-i. Poor knave, I blame thee not. 

ACT Y. 

758. And bring us word unto Octavius' tent. 
779. My heart doth joy, that yet, in all my life. 



60 PROLEGOMENA. 

Of these forty four corrections, thirty two are adopted 
in the present text ; and, of the remaining twelve, only 
one or two can be regarded, I think, as clearly wrong. 

I have not thought it necessary to distinguish the cases 
in which the verbal affix -ed is to be united in the pro- 
nunciation with the preceding syllable by the usual sub- 
stitution of the apostrophe in place of the silent vowel. 
Why should the word loved, for example, so sounded be 
represented differently in verse from what it always is in 
prose ? It is true that the cases in which the -ed makes a 
separate syllable are more numerous in Shakespeare than 
in the poetry of the present day; but the reader who 
cannot detect such a case on the instant is disqualified by 
some natural deficiency for the reading of verse. If any 
distinction were necessary, the better plan would be to 
represent the one form by " loved/' the other by " lov-ed." 

I have not thought it necessary in the present revision to make the 
numerous typographical rectifications which would have been required 
in the margin of every page, and also in many of the references, to 
remove the traces of an unimportant error of one in the numbering of 
the speeches from 249 (on p. 180), which ought to be 248, onwards to 
the end of the play. — 1863. 



PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY 



SHAKESPEARE'S JULIUS (LESAR. 



PERSONS REPRESENTED. 



JULIUS CJESAR. 

OCTAVIUS CJESAR, ) Triumvirs, after 
MARCUS ANTONIUS, \ the death of Julius 
M. JEMIL. LEPIDUS, ) Ctssa . 
CICERO, PUBLIUS, POPILIUS LENA; 

Senators. 
MARCUS BRUTUS, 
CASSIUS, 
CASCA, 
TREBONIUS, 
LIGARIUS, 
DECIUS BRUTUS, 
METELLUS CIMBER, 
CINNA, 

FLAYIUS and MARULLUS, Tribunes. 
ARTEMIDORUS, a Sophist of Cnidos. 



Conspirators 
against Julius 
Caesar. 



A SOOTHSAYER. 

CINNA, a Poet.— Another POET. 

LUCILIUS, TITINIUS,MESSALA, Yonng 

CATO, and YOLUMNIUS ; Friends to 

Brutus and Cassius. 
VARRO, CLITUS, CLAUDIUS, STRATO, 

LUCIUS, DARDANIUS; Servants to 

Brutus. 
PINDARUS, Servant to Cassius. 



CALPHURNIA, Wife to Caesar. 
PORTIA, Wife to Brutus. 



Senators, Citizens, Guards, Attend- 
ants, EI'C. 



Scene, during a great part of the Play, at Rome ; afterwards at 
Sard is ; and near Philippi. 



ACT I. 



1. 



SCENE I.-— Rome. A Street 
Enter Flavius, Marullus, and a Rabble of Citizens. 
Flav. Hence ; home, you idle creatures, get you home ; 



Is this a holiday ? What ! know you not, 

Being mechanical, you ought not walk, 

Upon a labouring day, without the sign 

Of your profession ? — Speak, what trade art thou ? 



02 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

1 Cit. Why, Sir, a carpenter. 

Mar. Where is thy leather apron, and thy rule ? 
What dost thou with thy best apparel on ? — 
You, Sir ; what trade are you ? 

2 Cit. Truly, Sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you 
would say, a cobbler. 

Mar. But what trade art thou ? Answer me directly. 

6. 2 Cit. A trade, Sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe con- 
science ; which is, indeed, Sir, a mender of bad soles. 

7. Mar. What trade, thou knave ? thou naughty knave, what trade ? 

8. 2 Cit. Nay, I beseech you, Sir, be not out with me : yet if you 
be out, Sir, I can mend you. 

9. Mar. What mean'st thou by that ? Mend me, thou saucy fellow ? 
2 Cit. Why, Sir, cobble you. 

Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou ? 
12. 2 Cit. Truly, Sir, all that I live by is, with the awl : I meddle 
with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl, 
I am, indeed, Sir, a surgeon to old shoes ; when they are in great 
danger, T recover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neat's 
leather have gone upon my handiwork. 

Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day ? 
Why dost thou lead these men about the streets ? 

2 Cit, Truly, Sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into more 
work. But, indeed, Sir, we make holiday to see Ceesar, and to re- 
joice in his triumph. 
15. Mar. Wherefore rejoice ? What conquest brings he home ? 
What tributaries follow him to Rome, 
To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels ? 
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things ! 
0, you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, 
Knew you not Pompey ? Many a time and oft 
Have you climbed up to walls and battlements, 
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops, 
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat 
The live-long day, with patient expectation, 
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome : 
And, when you saw his chariot but appear, 
Have you not made an universal shout, 
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks, 
To hear the replication of your sounds 
Made in her concave shores ? 
And do you now put on your best attire ? 
And do you now cull out a holiday ? 



sc. 1.] Julius oassAB. G3 

And do vou now strew flowers in his way, 
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood? 
Be gone ! 

Run to tout houses, fall upon your knees, 
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague 
That needs must light on this ingratitude. 

16. Flav. Go,. go, good countrymen, and, for this fault, 
Assemble all the poor men of your sort ; 

Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears 

Into the channel, till the lowest stream 

Do kiss the most exalted shores of all. {Exeunt Citizens. 

See, whe'r their basest metal be not moved ! 

They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness. 

Go you down that way towards the Capitol; 

This way will I : Disrobe the images, 

If you do find them deckt with ceremonies. 

17. Mar. May we do so ? 

You know, it is the feast of Lupercal. 

18. . Flav. It is no matter ; let no images 

Be hung with Caesar's trophies. I'll about, 

And drive away the vulgar from the streets ; 

So do you too, where you perceive them thick. 

These growing feathers pluckt from Caesar's wing, 

Will make him fly an ordinary pitch ; 

Who else would soar above the view of men, 

And keep us all in servile fearfulness. [Exeunt 

Act I. Scene I., etc. — The heading here in the original 
text is: — "Actus Primus. Scoena Prima. Hater Fla- 
vins, JSLurellus, and certaine Commoners over the Stage?' 
Murellits stands throughout not only in all the Folios, 
but also in the editions of both Eowe and Pope. The 
right name was first inserted by Theobald. 

This opening scene may he compared with the first part 
of that of Coriolanus, to which it bears a strong general 
resemblance. 

1. You ought not walk. — The history and explanation 
of this now disnsed construction may be best collected 
from a valuable paper by Dr Gruest " On English Verbs, 
Substantive and Auxiliary," read before the Philological 
Society, 13th March, 1846, and printed in their Proceed- 



64 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTABY. [ACT I. 

ings, II. 223. " Originally,' ' says Dr Guest, "the to was 
prefixed to the gerund, but never to the present infinitive ; 
as, however, the custom gradually prevailed of using the 
latter in place of the former, the to was more and more 
frequently prefixed to the infinitive, till it came to be 
considered as an almost necessary appendage of it. Many 
idioms, however, had sunk too deeply into the language 
to admit of alteration ; and other phrases, to which the 
popular ear had been familiarized, long resisted the in- 
trusive particle." The ancient syntax is still retained in 
all cases with the auxiliary verbs, as they are called, shall, 
will, can, may, do, and also with must and let, and oftener 
than not with hid, dare, hear, make, see, and perhaps some 
others. Vid. 634. Cause is frequently so used ; and so 
is help, sometimes, — as in Milton's Sonnet to his friend 
Lawrence : — 

" "Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire 
Help waste a sullen day ? ' ' 

But, even since the language may be said to have en- 
tered upon the stage of its existence in which it still is, 
several of the verbs just enumerated as not admitting the 
to are occasionally found following the common example 
and taking it ; and others, again, which at the present day 
have completely conformed to the ordinary construction, 
formerly used now and then to dispense with it. One of 
Dr Guest's quotations exemplifies both these archaisms ; 
it is from the portion of The Mirror for Magistrates con- 
tributed by John Higgins in 1574 {King Albanact, 16) : — 

" And, though we owe the fall of Troy requite, 
Yet let revenge thereof from gods to light.' ' 

That is, " Though we ought to requite, . . . yet let re- 
venge light," as we should now say. Here we have let 
with the to, and owe (of which ought or owed is the pre- 
terite), as in Shakespeare's expression before us, without 
it. Others of Dr Gruest's citations from the same writer 



SC. 1.] JULIUS O^SAE. G5 

exhibit the auxiliaries may, will, can with the to. And 
he also produces from Spenser {F. Q., iv. 7. 32), — 
" Whom when on ground she grovelling saw to roll ; " 
and from Shakespeare {Othello, iv. 2) — 

" I durst, my Lord, to wager she is honest." 
Other verbs that are found in Shakespeare sometimes 
construed in the same manner are endure, forbid, intend, 
vouchsafe ; as, 

" The treason that my haste forbids me show." 

Rich. II, v. 3. 
" How long within this wood intend yon stay ?" 

Mid. JS T . Dr., ii. 1. 
" Your betters have endured me say my mind." 

Tarn, of Shrew, iv. 3. 
" Most mighty Duke, vouchsafe me speak a word." 

Com. of Er. v. 1. 

The verb to owe, it may further be observed, is etymo- 
logically the same with own. Shakespeare repeatedly 
has owe where own would be now employed ; as in Iago's 
diabolical self-gratulation (in Othello, Hi. 3) : — 

" Xot poppy, nor mandragora, 
Nor all the drowsy syrops of the world, 
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep 
"Which thou owed' st yesterday." 

The original English word is dgan, — the ag, or radical part, 
of which is evidently the same with the ex °^ ^ ne & ree k 
exeiv, signifying to hold, to possess, to have for one's pro- 
perty, or what we call one's own. If we suppose the a to 
have been pronounced broad, as in our modern all, and 
the g to have come to be softened as g final usually is 
in modern German, ag and owe, unlike as they are to the 
eye, will be only different ways of spelling, or represent- 
ing by letters, almost the same vocal utterance. The 
sound which the vowel originally had is more nearly pre- 
served in the Scotch form of the word, awe. The n which 
we have in the form own is either merely the common an- 



6Q PHILOLOGICAL COMMENT AE-Y. [ACT I. 

nexation which the vowel sound is apt to seek as a sup- 
port or rest for itself, or, probably, in this case it may be 
the en of the ancient past participle (agen) or the an of 
the infinitive (dgan). So we have both to awake and to 
awaken, to ope and to open. In so short a word as the 
one under consideration, and one in such active service, 
these affixes would be the more liable to get confounded 
with the root. It may sound odd to speak of a man as 
owning what he owes ; yet, if we will think of it, there 
are few things that can rightly be said to be more a man's 
own than his debts ; they are emphatically proper to him, 
or his property, clinging to him, as they do, like a part of 
himself. Again, that which a man owns in this sense, or 
owes, is that which it is proper for him, or which he has, 
to perform or to discharge (as the case may be) ; hence 
the secondary meaning of ought as applied to that which 
is one's duty, or which is fitting. For another explan- 
ation of these forms, however, the reader is referred to 
the Second Edition of Dr Latham's Handbook of the 
English Language (1855), pp. 304 and 309. Dr Latham 
distinguishes the own in such expressions as " He owned 
his fault" by the name of the Own eoncedentis (of con- 
cession or acknowledgment) . But may not this sense be 
explained as equivalent to I make my own, I take as my 
own ? 

1. Upon a labouring dag. — Labouring is here a sub- 
stantive, not a participle. It is as when we say that we 
love labouring, or that labouring is conducive to health 
of mind as well as of body. It is not meant that the day 
labours ; as when we speak of a labouring man, or a la- 
bouring ship, or a labouring line — 

("When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, 
The line too labours, and the words move slow"). 

A labouring day is an expression of the same kind with 
a ivalking stick, or a riding coat ; in which it is not as- 
serted that the stick walks, or that the coat rides ; but, 



SC. 1.] JULIUS CiSAR. 67 

two substantives being conjoined, the one characterizes 
or qualifies the other, — performs, in fact, the part of an 
adjective, — just as happens in the expressions a gold ring, 
a silver tankard, a leather apron, a morning draught, the 
evening hells. 

An expression used by Cowper (in bis verses composed 
in the name of Alexander Selkirk), "the sound of the 
church-going bell," has been passionately reprobated by 
Wordsworth. " The epithet church-going applied to a 
bell," observes the critic (in an Appendix upon the sub- 
ject of Poetic Diction, first attached, I believe, in 1820 
to the Preface originally published with the Second 
Edition of the Lyrical Ballads, 1800), "and that by so 
chaste a writer as Cowper, is an instance of the strange 
abuses which poets have introduced into their language, 
till they and their readers take them as matters of 
course, if they do not single them out expressly as mat- 
ters of admiration." A church-going hell is merely a bell 
for church-going; and the expression is constructed on 
the same principle with a thousand others that are and 
always have been in familiar use ; — such as a marauding 
or a sight-seeing expedition, a banking or a house-build- 
ing speculation, a fox-hunting country, a lending library, 
a writing desk, a looking glass, a dining room, a dancing 
school, a dwelling house, a lying-in hospital, etc., etc. 
What would Wordsworth have said to such a daring and 
extreme employment of the same form as we have in 
Shakespeare, where he makes Cleopatra (in Antony and 
Cleopatra, Hi. 11) say, speaking of the victorious Caesar, — 
" From his all-obeying breath I hear 
The doom of Egypt ? " 

But these audacities of language are of the very soul of 
poetry. 

The peculiar class of substantives under consideration 
cannot, properly speaking, be regarded as even present 
participles in disguise. Their true history has been given 



6S PHILOLOGICAL COMMENT AE,Y. [ACT I. 

for the first time by Mr Kichard Taylor in his Additional 
Notes to Tooke's Diversions of Parley, 1829 and 1840; 
vid. edition of 1840, pp. xxxix.-liv. The old termination 
of the present participle in English was and or end; and 
when that part of the verb was used substantively it de- 
noted the agent, or performer of the verbal act. Thus, 
Haelend signified the Healer, or Saviour ; Scyppend, the 
Shaper, or Creator. Ing or ung, on the other hand, was 
the regular termination of that description of verbal sub- 
stantive which denoted the act. Thus Brennung was what 
in Latin would be called Combustio, and what in our 
modern English is still called the Burning. In other 
tongues of the same Gothic stock to which our own in 
part belongs both forms are still preserved. In German, 
for instance, we have, as anciently in English, end for 
the termination universally of the present participle, and 
ung for that of a numerous class of verbal substantives all 
signifying the act or thing done. It never could have 
been supposed that in that language these verbal sub- 
stantives in ung were present participles. 

But in English the fact is, as Mr Taylor has observed, 
that it is not the verbal substantive denoting the act 
which has assumed the form of the present participle, but 
the latter which has thrown away its own proper termi- 
nation and adopted that of the former. This change 
appears to have commenced as early as the twelfth cen- 
tury, and to have been completely established by the 
fourteenth. Even after the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, however, we have the old distinction between the 
two terminations (the end or and for the present participle, 
or the agent, and the ing for the verbal act) still adhered 
to by the Scottish writers. 

The consequence of the two forms having thus become 
confounded is, as Dr Latham has remarked {English 
Language, 3rd edit. pp. 349, 350), that we now construct 
our verbal substantives in ing upon a false analogy. It 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C2ESAR. 69 

has long been understood, or assumed, at least, that the 
present participle of any English verb may be used sub- 
stantively to express the verbal act or state. 

1. What trade art thou? — The rationale of this mode 
of expression may be seen from the answer to the ques- 
tion: — " "Wiry, Sir, a carpenter." The trade and the 
person practising it are used indifferently the one for the 
other : " What trade art thou ?" is equivalent to " What 
tradesman art thou?" So in 6 we have — "A trade . . . 
which is, indeed, a mender of bad soles." The thou, as 
here and in 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, was still common in the English 
of Shakespeare's age ; it was the ordinary form in address- 
ing an inferior ; only when he was treated, or affected to 
be treated, as a gentleman, the mechanic received the 
more honourable compellation of you; — as in 3, "You, 
Sir, what trade are you?" Thou, Sir, would have been 
incongruous in the circumstances. 

6. Soles. — Quasi souls ; — an immemorial quibble, 
doubtless. It is found also (as Malone notes) in 
Eletcher's Woman Pleased. Yet we might seem to have 
a distinction of pronunciation between soul and sole in- 
dicated in The Merchant of Venice, iv. 1, " Xot on thy 
sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew." 

7. This speech in the old copies is given to Flavins ; 
and it is restored to him by Mr Knight, who observes 
that the modern editors " assume that only one [of the 
tribunes] should take the lead; whereas it is clear that 
the dialogue is more natural, certainly more dramatic, 
according to the original arrangement, where Flavius and 
Marullus alternately rate the people, like two smiths 
smiting on the same anvil." But this will not explain or 
account for the "mend me" of Marullus in 9. That 
proves beyond controversy that the preceding speech (8) 
was addressed to Marullus ; and it is equally clear that 
the you of speech 8 is the person to whom speech 7 be- 
longs . The rating, besides, is as much alternate, or in- 



70 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT T. 

termingled, in the one way as in the other : Mr Knight 
gives six speeches to Flavius and five to Marullus ; the 
common arrangement gives five to Flavins and six to 
Marullus. Mr Collier, however, also gives the present 
speech to Flavius. 

The other changes which Mr Knight charges the 
modern editors with proposing unnecessarily in the allot- 
ment of the speeches in this scene were all proposed, I 
believe, before the substitution of Marullus for Flavins 
in 7, which was made by Capell. 

8. Be not out with me; yet, if you he out. — The two 
senses of being out are obvious : " They are out with one 
another," or, simply, "They are out;" and "He is out 
at the elbows," or in any other part of his dress. For 
another play upon the various senses of the word out see 
the dialogue between Rosalind and Orlando in As You 
Like It, iv. 1. 

9. Mend me. — The answer shows that mend, not me, 
is the emphatic word. 

12. But with awl. — Mr Knight and Mr Collier print 
" with all." This, apparently, would accord with Parmer's 
notion, who maintains that the true reading is " I meddle 
with no trade, man's matters," etc., understanding tvith 
awl, or with all, I suppose, to involve, as one of its mean- 
ings, that of "with all trades." The original reading is, 
"but withal I am indeed, Sir, a surgeon," etc. And the 
Second Folio has "woman's matters." 

12. As proper men. — A proper man is a man such as 
he should be. In The Tempest, ii. 2, we have the same 
expression that we have here distributed into two suc- 
cessive speeches of the drunken Stephano : — " As proper 
a man as ever went on four legs ;" and " Any emperor 
that ever trod on neat's leather." But, in the prevailing 
tone of its inspiration at least, it is not with the present 
Play that one would compare The Tempest, but rather 
with The Winter's Tale. 



SC. 1.] JULIUS CAESAR. 71 

15. Wherefore rejoice ? etc. — This was in the begin- 
ning of e. c. 44 (a. u. c. 709), when Caesar, having re- 
turned from Spain in the preceding October, after defeat- 
ing the sons of Pompey at the Battle of Mimda (fought 
17th March, b. c. 45), had been appointed Consul for 
the next ten years and Dictator for life. The festival of 
the Lupercalia, at which he was offered and declined the 
crown, was celebrated 13th February, B. c. 44; and he 
was assassinated 15th March following, being then in his 
fifty-sixth year. 

15. Many a time and oft. — This old phrase, which is 
still familiar, may be held to be equivalent to many and 
many a time, that is, many times and yet again many more 
times. The old pointing of this line is, ;; Knew you not 
Pompey many a time and oft?" It is like what all the 
Folios give us in Jfacbeth, i. 5 : — 

"Your face, my thane, is as a book where men 
May read strange matters, to beguile the time." 

"What follows, — "Have you climbed up," etc., — is, of 
course, made a second question. 

15. To see great Pompey pass the streets of Home. — 
In modern English to pass a street, or a bridge, is to ab- 
stain from walking along it. It would be satisfactory 
with respect to this line, if other instances could be 
produced of the usage of the language being different in 
Shakespeare's day. 

15. That Tiber trembled underneath her banks. — The 
proper antecedent of that (so, or in such wise) is left un- 
expressed, as sufficiently obvious. — Some of the modem 
editors have taken the unwarrantable libertv of changing 
her into his in this line and the next but one, because 
Tiber is one of those names of rivers which are always 
masculine in Latin. This is to give us both language 
and a conception different from Shakespeare's. 

15. Made in her concave shores. — An imperfect line (or 



72 PHILOLOGICAL COMMESTTABT. [ACT I. 

hemistich, as it is commonly called), but prosodically re- 
gular so far as it goes, which is all we have a right to look 
for. The occasional use of such shortened lines would 
seem to be, at least in dramatic poetry, one of the proper 
and natural prerogatives of blank verse, according well, 
as it does, with the variety of pause and cadence which 
makes the distinctive charm of verse of that form. But, 
apparently, it need not be assumed, as is always done, 
that the fragment must necessarily be in all cases the 
beginning of a line. "Why should not the poet be sup- 
posed sometimes, when he begins a new sentence or 
paragraph in this manner, to intend that it should be 
connected, in the prosody as well as in the meaning, with 
what follows, not with what precedes ? A few lines lower 
down, for instance, the words " Be gone " might be either 
the first foot of the verse or the last. 

16. Weep your tears. — We should scarcely now speak 
of weeping tears absolutely, though we might say "to 
weep tears of blood, or of agony, or of bitterness," or 
"to weep an ocean of tears, or our nil of tears." This 
sense of the verb weep is quite distinct from the sense it 
commonly has when used transitively, which is to weep 
for, or to lament; as when in Cijmbeline (i. 5) Iachimo 
speaks of "those that weep this lamentable divorce." It 
more resembles what we have in the phrases To sin the 
sin, To die the death, To sing a song ; — expressive forms, 
to which the genius of our tongue has never been very 
prone, and to which it is now decidedly averse. They owe 
their effect, in part, indeed, to a certain naturalness, or 
disregard of strict propriety, which a full-grown and edu- 
cated language is apt to feel ashamed of as something 
rustic or childish. Perhaps, however, a distinction should 
be drawn between such an expression as To weep tears and 
such as To sin the sin, To sing a song, in which the verb 
is merely a synonyme for to act, to perform, to execute. 

16. Till the lowest stream, etc. — The hot-tempered tri- 



SC. 1.] JULIUS CiESAK. 73 

bune talks fast. It is evident that no augmentation of 
the water will ever make the lowest stream touch the 
highest shores. In the do Tciss we have a common archaism, 
the retention of the auxiliary, now come to be regarded, 
when it is not emphatic, as a pleonasm enfeebling the ex- 
pression, and consequently denied alike to the writer of 
prose and to the writer of verse. It is thus in even a 
worse predicament than the separate pronunciation of the 
final ed in the preterite indicative or past participle pas- 
sive. It was only the first fervour of an acquaintance 
with and admiration of our old literature that could 
have led Keats to mar the fine poetry of many of his 
pieces by a recurrence to these extinct forms. But 
in the age of Shakespeare they were both, though begin- 
ning to be abandoned, still part and parcel of the living 
language, and there is therefore no affectation in his fre- 
quent use of them. Instances both of the unemphatic do 
and of the distinct syllabication of the final ed are numer- 
ous in the present Play. The modern forms probably 
were as yet completely established only in the spoken 
language, which commonly goes before that which is 
written and read in such economical innovations. — For 
the modern stage direction Exeunt Citizens, the original 
text has here Exeunt all the Commoners. 

16. See wheW their basest metal. — WJieW is whether. 
The contraction is common both in Shakespeare and in 
other writers of his age. Thus we have in his 59th 
Sonnet : — 

" Whether we are mended, or whe*r better they, 
Or whether revolution be the same." 

The er may be supposed to have been pronounced as the 
er is in her. In the old copies the word, when thus con- 
tracted, is usually printed exactly as the adverb of place 
always is, where. But if it were to be here spelled whether 
at full length, and pronounced as a dissyllable, we should 



74 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

have no more of prosodical irregularity than we have in 
many other lines. And it is occasionally in similar cir- 
cumstances so presented in the old copies. 

16. Deckt with ceremonies. — To deck (the same with 
the Latin teg-ere and the German deck-en) signifies pro- 
perly no more than to cover. Hence the deck of a ship. 
Thatch (the German Dacli) is another formation from the 
same root. To deck, therefore, has no connexion with to 
decorate, which is of the same stock with decent (from the 
Latin decus, or decor, and decet). The supposition that 
there was a connexion, however, has probably helped to 
acquire for deck its common acceptation, which now always 
involves the notion of decoration or adornment. And 
that was also its established sense when Shakespeare 
wrote. By ceremonies must here be meant what are after- 
wards in 18 called " Caesar's trophies," and are described 
in 95 as " scarfs " which were hung on Caesar's images. 
No other instance of this use of the word, however, is 
produced by the commentators ; nor is such a sense of it 
given either by Johnson (though himself an editor of 
Shakespeare) or by "Webster. The Latin ceremonia is of 
unknown or disputed origin, but its only meaning is a 
religious rite. In our common English the meaning of 
ceremony has been extended so as to include also forms of 
civility and outward forms of state. We have it in that 
sense in 27. And we shall find lower down that Shake- 
speare uses it in still another sense, which is peculiar to 
himself, or which has now at least gone out. Fid. 194. 

17. The feast of Lupercal. — The Eoman festival of the 
Lupercalia (-ium or -ioruni) , whatever may be the ety- 
mology of the name, was in honour of the god Pan. It 
was celebrated annually on the Ides (or 13th) of Febru- 
ary, in a place called the Lupercal, at the foot of Mount 
Aventine. A third company of Luperci, or priests of 
Pan, with Antony for its chief, was instituted in honour 
of Julius Csesar. 



SC. 2.] JULIUS (LESAR. 75 

18. It is no matter, etc. — The Second Folio goes, or 
stumbles, on — 

"let on Images 
Be hung with the Ccesars Trophees." 

Mr Collier does not state that this is corrected by his 
MS. annotator. 

18. Will make Mm fly. — A modern sentence constructed 
in this fashion would constitute the him the antecedent 
to the who, and give it the meaning of the person gener- 
ally who (in this instance) else would soar, etc., or who- 
ever would. But it will be more accordant with the style 
of Shakespeare's day to leave the him unemphatic, and to 
regard Caesar as being the antecedent to who. It was not 
then so unusual, or accounted so inelegant, as it would 
now be, in our more precise and straitened syntax, thus 
to separate the relative from its true antecedent by the 
interposition of another false or apparent one, or to tack 
on the relative clause to the completed statement as if it 
had been an afterthought. Thus, again in the present 
Play, we have, in 704, — 

" Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign 
Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perched, 
Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands ; 
Who to Philippi here consorted us ; 

and in 716, — 

" Cassius, Brutus gave the word too early ; 
Who, having some advantage on Octavius, 
Took it too eagerly." 

SCENE II.— The same. A Public Place. 

Enter, in Procession icith Music, C^sar ; Antony, for the course ; 
Calphurnia, Portia, Decius, Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, and 
Casca, a great crowd following, among them a Soothsayer. 

Cces. Calphurnia,— 

Casca. Peace, ho ! Caesar speaks. [Music ceases. 

Cces. Calphurnia, — 

Cal. Here, my lord. 



76 PHILOLOGICAL COM^IEXTARF. [ACT I. 

23. Cess. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, 
"When he doth run his course. — Antonius. 
Ant, Caesar, my lord. 
25. Cces. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, 
To touch Calphurnia ; for our elders say, 
The barren, touched in this holy chase, 
Shake off their sterile curse. 

Ant. I shall remember : 
When Caesar says, Bo this, it is performed. 

Cces. Set on ; and leave no ceremony out. [Music. 

Sooth. Caesar. 
Cces. Ha ! who calls ? 

Casca. Bid every noise be still -—Peace yet again. [Music ceases. 
Cess. Who is it in the press that calls on me ? 
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, 
Cry, Caesar. Speak ; Caesar is turned to hear. 
32. Sooth. Beware the ides of March. 

Cces. What man is that ? 
34. Bru. A soothsayer, bids you beware the ides of March. 
Cces. Set him before me ; let me see his face. 
Cas. Fellow, come from the throng : Look upon Caesar. 
Cces. What say'st thou to me now ? Speak once again. 
Sooth. Beware the ides of March. 
39. Cces. He is a dreamer : let us leave him ; — pass. 

[Sennet. Exeunt all but Brutus and Cassius. 
Cas. Will you go see the order of the course ? 
Bru. Not I. 
Cas. 1 pray you do. 

Bru. I am not gamesome : I do lack some part 
Of that quick spirit that is in Antony. 
Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires ; 
I'll leave you. 

44. Cas. Brutus, I do observe you now of late : 
I have not from your eyes that gentleness, 
And show of love, as I was wont to have : 
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand 
Over your friend that loves you. 

45. Bru. Cassius, 

Be not deceived : if I have veiled my look, 
I turn the trouble of my countenance 
Merely upon myself. Vexed I am, 
Of late, with passions of some difference, 
Conceptions only proper to myself, 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CJESAR. 77 

Which give some soil, perhaps, to my behaviours : 
But let not therefore my good friends be grieved 
(Among which number, Cassius, be you one) ; 
Nor construe any further my neglect, 
Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war, 
Forgets the shews of love to other men. 

46. Cas. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion ; 
By means whereof, this breast of mine hath buried 

■ Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations. 
Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face ? 

47. Bru. Xo, Cassius : for the eye sees not itself, 
But by reflection, by some other things. 

48. Cas. 'Tisjust: 

And it is very much lamented, Brutus, 

That you have no such mirrors as will turn 

Your hidden worthiness into your eye, 

That you might see your shadow. I have heard, 

"Where many of the best respect in Borne 

(Except immortal Caesar), speaking of Brutus, 

And groaning underneath this age's yoke, 

Have wished that noble Brutus had his eyes. 

Bru. Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius, 

That you would have me seek into myself 

For that which is not in me ! 
60. Cas. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared to hear : 

And, since you know you cannot see yourself 

So well as by reflection, T, your glass, 

Will modestly discover to yourself 

That of yourself which you yet know not of. 

And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus : 

Were I a common laugher, or did use 

To stale with ordinary oaths my love 

To every new protester ; if you know 

That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard, 

And after scandal them ; or if you know 

That I profess myself in banqueting 

To all the rout, then hold me dangerous. [Flourish and shout. 
51. Bru. What means this shouting ? I do fear, the people 

Choose Caesar for their king. 
Cas. Ay, do you fear it ? 

Then must I think you would not have it so. 
53. Bru. I would not, Cassius ; yet I love him well. — 

Bat wherefore do you hold me here so long ? 



78 THTLOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT 

What is it that you would impart to me ? 
If it be aught toward the general good, 
Set Honour in one eye, and Death i' the other, 
And I will look on both indifferently : 
For, let the gods so speed me, as I love 
The name of Honour more than I fear Death. 
54. Cas. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus, 
As well as I do know your outward favour. 
Well, Honour is the subject of my story. — ■ 
I cannot tell what you and other men 
Think of this life ; but, for my single self, 
I had as lief not be as live to be 
In awe of such a thing as I myself. 
I was born free as Caesar ; so were you : 
We both have fed as well ; and we can both < 

Endure the winter's cold as well as he. 
For once, upon a raw and gusty day, 
The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, 
Caesar said to me, Dar'st thou, Cassius, now 
Leap in with me into this angry flood, 
A nd swim to yonder point f Upon the word, 
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in, 
And bade him follow : so, indeed, he did. 
The torrent roared ; and we did buffet it 
With lusty sinews ; throwing it aside, 
And stemming it with hearts of controversy. 
But ere we could arrive the point proposed, 
Caesar cried, Help me, Cassius, or I sink. 
I, as iEneas, our great ancestor, 
Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder 
The old Anchises bear, so, from the waves of Tiber 
Did I the tired Caesar : And this man 
Is now become a god ; and Cassius is 
A wretched creature, and must bend his body 
If Caesar carelessly but nod on him. 
He had a fever when he was in Spain, 
And, when the fit was on him, I did mark 
How he did shake : 'tis true, this god did shake : 
His coward lips did from their colour fly ; 
And that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world. 
Did lose his lustre : I did hear him groan : 
Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Eomans 
Mark him, and write his speeches in their books, 



SC. 2.] JTLirS CJ3SAR. 71 

Alas ! it cried, Give me some drink, Titinius, 
As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me, 
A man of such, a feeble temper should 
So get the start of the majestic world, 

And bear the palm alone. [Shout. Flourish. 

do. Bru. Another general shout ! 
I do believe, that these applauses are 
For some new honours that are heaped on Caesar. 

56. Cas. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world. 
Like a Colossus ; and we petty men 

Walk under his huge legs, and peep about 

To find ourselves dishonourable graves. 

Men at some time are masters of their fates : 

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 

But in ourselves, that we are underlings. 

Brutus and Csesar : "What should be in that Caesar ? 

Why should that name be sounded more than yours ? 

Write them together, yours is as fair a name ; 

Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well ; 

Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em. 

Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Caesar, [Shout. 

Now, in the names of all the gods at once, 

Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, 

That he is grown so great ? Age, thou art shamed : 

Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods ! 

When went there by an age, since the great flood, 

But it was famed with more than with one man ? 

When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome, 

That her wide walls encompassed but one man ? 

Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough, 

When there is in it but one only man. 

! you and I have heard our fathers say, 

There was a Brutus once, that would have brooked 

The eternal devil to keep his state in Borne 

As easily as a king. 

57. Bru, That you do love me, I am nothing jealous ; 
What you would work me to, I have some aim ; 
How I have thought of this, and of these times, 

I shall recount hereafter ; for this present, 
I would not, so with love I might entreat you, 
Be any further moved. What you have said, 
1 will consider ; what you have to say, 
I will with patience hear : and find a time 



80 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTAEY. [ACT 

Both meet to hear, and answer, such high things. 
Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this : 
Brutus had rather he a villager, 
Than to repute himself a son of Rome 
Under these hard conditions as this time 
Is like to lay upon us. 
5S. Cas, I am glad, that my weak words 
Have struck hut this much shew of fire from Brutus. 
Re-enter Cjesar, and his Tram. 
Bru. The games are done and Csesar is returning. 

60. Cas. As they pass by, pluck Casca by the sleeve ; 
And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you 
What hath proceeded, worthy note, to-day. 

61. Bru. I will do so : — But, look you, Cassius, 
The angry spot doth glow on Csesar's brow, 
And all the rest look like a chidden train : 
Calphurnia's cheek is pale; and Cicero 
Looks with such ferret and such fiery eyes, 
As we have seen him in the Capitol, 

Being crossed in conference by some senators. 

62. Cas. Casca will tell us what the matter is. 
Cces. Antonius. 

Ant. Csesar. 
35. Cces. Let me have men about me that are fat; 
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights : 
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look ; 
He thinks too much : such men are dangerous. 

66. Ant. Fear him not, Ceesar ; he's not dangerous. 
He is noble Eoman, and well given. 

67. Cces. Would he were fatter. — But I fear him not. 
Yet, if my name were liable to fear, 

I do not know the man I should avoid 
So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much; 
He is a great observer, and he looks 
Quite through the deeds of men : he loves no plays, 
As thou dost, Antony ; he hears no music : 
Seldom he smiles ; and smiles in such a sort, 
As if he mocked himself, and scorned his spirit 
That could be moved to smile at any thing. 
Such men as he be never at heart's ease, 
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves ; 
And therefore are they very dangerous. 
I rather tell thee what is to be feared 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CiESAR. 81 

Than what I fear ; for always I am Caesar. 
Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf, 
And tell me truly what thou think' st of him. 

[Sennet. Exeunt Cesar and his Train, Casca stays behind. 

Casca. You pulled me by the cloak ; "Would you speak with me ? 
69. Bra. Ay, Casca ; tell us what hath chanced to-day, 
That Caesar looks so sad. 

Casca. Why, you were with him, were you not ? 

Bru. I should not then ask Casca what had chanced. 

Casca. Why, there was a crown offered him : and, being offered 
him, he put it by with the back of his hand, thus ; and then the 
people fell a-shouting. 

Bra. What was the second noise for ? 

Casca. Why, for that too. 

Cas. They shouted thrice ; What was the last cry for ? 

Casca. Why, for that too. 

Bra. Was the crown offered him thrice ? 
78. Casca. Ay, marry, was't, and he put it by thrice, every time 
gentler than other ; and, at every putting by, mine honest neighbours 
shouted. 

Cas. Who offered him the crown ? 

Casca. Why, Antony. 

Bra. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca. 

82. Casca. I can as well be hanged, as tell the manner of it : it was 
mere foolery. I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a 
crown; — yet 'twas not a crown neither, 'twas one of these coronets; 
— and, as I told you, he put it by once ; but, for all that, to my 
thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him 
again ; then he put it by again ; but, to my thinking, he was very 
loath to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it the third time ; 
he put it the third time by : and, still as he refused it, the rabblement 
shouted, and clapped their chopped hands, and threw up their sweaty 
night-caps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar 
refused the crown, that it had almost choked Caesar ; for he swooned, 
and fell down at it. And, for my own part, I durst not laugh, for 
fear of opening my lips, and receiving the bad air. 

83. Cas. But, soft, I pray you: What ? did Caesar swoon? 

Casca. He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at mouth, 
and was speechless. 

85. Bra. 'Tis very like : he hath the falling sickness. 

86. Cas. No, Caesar hath it not; but you and I, 
And honest Casca, we have the falling sickness. 

87. Casca. I know not what you mean by that ; but I am sure Caesar 

G 



82 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

fell down. If the tag-rag people did not clap him, and hiss him, 
according as he pleased and displeased them, as they use to do the 
players in the theatre, I am no trne man. 

Bru. What said he, when he came unto himself? 
89. Casca. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the com- 
mon herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his 
doublet, and offered them his throat to cut. — An I had been a man 
of any occupation, if I would not have taken him at a word, I would 
I might go to hell among the rogues. And so he fell. "When he 
came to himself again, he said, If he had done, or said, anything 
amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. Three 
or four wenches, where I stood, cried Alas, good soul ! — and forgave 
him with all their hearts : But there's no heed to be taken of them ; 
if Caesar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done no less. 

Bru. And after that, he came, thus sad, away ? 

Casca. Ay. 

Cas. Did Cicero say anything ? 

Casca. Ay, he spoke Greek. 

Cas, To what effect ? 
95. Casca. Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the face 
again : But those that understood him smiled at one another, and 
shook their heads ; but, for my own part, it was Greek to me. I 
could tell you more news too : Marullus and Flavius, for pulling 
scarfs off Caesar's images, are put to silence. Fare you well. There 
was more foolery yet, if I could remember it. 

Cas. Will you sup with me to-night, Casca ? 
97. Casca. No, I am promised forth. 

Cas. Will you dine with me to-morrow ? 

Casca. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your dinner 
worth the eating. 

Cas. Good : I will expect you. 

Casca. Do so : Farewell, both. [Exit Casca. 

102. Bru. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be ! 
He was quick mettle when he went to school. 

103. Cas. So is he now, in execution 
Of any bold or noble enterprise, 
However he puts on this tardy form. 
This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, 
Which gives men stomach to digest his words 
With better appetite. 

104. Bru. And so it is. For this time I will leave you: 
To-morrow if you please to speak with me, 

I will come home to you ; or, if you will, 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CJESAB,. 83 

Come home to me, and I will wait for you. 
105. Cas. I will do so :— till then, think of the world. 

[Exit Brutus. 
"Well, Brutus, thou art noble ; yet, I see, 
Thy honourable metal may be wrought 
From that it is disposed : Therefore it is meet 
That noble minds keep ever with their likes : 
For who so firm, that cannot be seduced ? 
Caesar doth bear me hard ; but he loves Brutus : 
If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius, 
He should not humour me. I will this night, 
In several hands, in at his windows throw, 
As if they came from several citizens, 
Writings all tending to the great opinion 
That Rome holds of his name ; wherein obscurely 
Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at: 
And, after this, let Caesar seat him sure ; 
For we will shake him, or worse days endure. [Exit. 

Scene II — The original heading here is : — " Enter Ccesar, 
Antony for the Course, Caljphurnia, Portia, Decius, Cicero, 
Brutus, Cassius, Caska, a Soothsayer : after them Murel- 
lus and Flavius" The three stage directions abont the 
Music are all modern. 

23. Stand you directly, etc. — The sacerdotal runners 
wore only a cincture of goat- skins, the same material of 
which their thongs were made. The passage in Plutarch's 
Life of Julius Caesar as translated by Sir Thomas "[North 
is as follows :-g- 

" At that time the feast Lupercalia was celebrated, the which in old 
time, men say, was the feast of Shepherds or Herdsmen, and is much 
like unto the feast of Lyceians [Avicela] in Arcadia. But, howsoever 
it is, that day there are divers noblemen's sons, young men (and some 
of them magistrates themselves that govern them), which run naked 
through the city, striking in sport them they meet in their way with 
leather thongs. And many noble women and gentlewomen also go of 
purpose to stand in their way, and do put forth their hands to be 
stricken, persuading themselves that, being with child, they shall have 
good delivery, and also, being barren, that it will make them conceive 
with child. Caesar sat to behold that sport upon the pulpit for ora- 

G 2 



81 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT T. 

tions, in a chair of gold, apparelled in triumphant manner. Antonius, 
who was Consul at that time, was one of them that ronne this Uoly 
course " 

Here, and in 25, as generally throughout the Play, 
Antonius is Antonio in the original text, and in all the 
editions down to that of Pope. 

25. Their sterile curse. — Our English formations from 
Latin words terminating in -His are in an unsatisfactory 
state in respect both of spelling and pronunciation. Of 
the Latin words some have the il long, others short ; and 
the former ought naturally to give in English -He (sound- 
ed as in mile), the latter -il. But, instead of this, the 
common usage is to spell them all indiscriminately with 
the e, and to pronounce them as if they were without it. 
Thus we have not only puerile, servile, subtile, juvenile, 
hostile (from puerilis, servilis, juvenilis, hostllis), but also 
docile, sterile, versatile, agile, fragile (from docilis, sterilis, 
versatilis, agllis, fragilis) . And, as for the pronunciation, 
while Walker, holding the general rule to be that the i is 
short, makes Exile, Senile, Edile, and Infantile (together 
with 'Reconcile, Chamomile, and Ustipile, — which last, 
however, is not in his Dictionary, or in any other that I 
have consulted), to be the only exceptions, Smart (1849) 
gives no rule upon the subject (that I can find), leaves 
Senile unmarked, and (omitting both Estipile and Cha- 
momile) seems to add Mercantile, and distinctly adds 
Gentile, to Exile and JEdile, as having the i long, and in 
Infantile seems to give it short in the Dictionary, but dis- 
tinctly marks it as long in the section of his " Principles " 
to which a reference is made from the word. Eurther, as 
if the confusion were not bad enough without such 
mechanical carelessness and blundering, in the stereo- 
typed 8vo edition of "Walker, 1819 (called the 21st edi- 
tion), in a list given at page 36 (the same page in which 
the strange word Estipile occurs) the i is printed with 
the long instead of the short mark in Gentile, Virile, Sub- 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C£SAB. 85 

tile, Coctile, Quintile, Hostile, Servile, and Sextile, in 
direct contradiction both to the Dictionary and to the 
very statement with which the list is headed and intro- 
duced. The present tendency of our pronunciation seems 
to be to extend the dominion of the long i both in these 
forms and even in the termination ite. In reading, at 
least, the — He is now perhaps more usually pronounced 
long than short in Hostile, Servile, and some other similar 
instances ; and we sometimes hear even infinite pronoun- 
ced with the ite long (as hi finite), though such a pronun- 
ciation is still only that of the uneducated populace in 
Opposite or Favourite. 

32. The Ides of March. — In the Eoman Kalendar the 
Ides (Idus) fell on the 15th of March, May, July, and 
October, and on the 13th of the eight remaining months. 
34. A soothsayer, hids. — That is, It is a soothsayer, who 
bids. It would not otherwise be an answer to Caesar's 
question. The omission of the relative in such a con- 
struction is still common. 

39. The old stage direction here is ; — " Sennet. Exeunt. 
Manet Brut, et Cass." The word Sennet is also variously 
written Sennit, Senet, Synnet, Cynet, Signet, and Signate. 
Eares explains it as " a word chiefly occurring in the 
stage directions of the old plays, and seeming to indicate 
a particular set of notes on the trumpet, or cornet, differ- 
ent from a flourish." In Shakespeare it occurs again in 
the present Play at 67, in the heading to Antony and 
Cleopatra, ii. 7, in Xing Henry VIII, ii. 4, and in Corio- 
lanus, i. 1 and 2, where in the first scene we have " A 
Sennet. Trumpets sound." In the heading of the second 
scene of the fifth act of Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight 
of Malta we have " Synnet, i. e. Flourish of Trumpets."" 
But in Dekker's Satiromastix (1602) we have " Trumpets 
sound a flourish, and then a sennet." Steevens says ; — 
" I have been informed that sennet is derived from sen- 
neste, an antiquated French tune formerly used in the 



86 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

army ; but the Dictionaries which I have consulted 
exhibit no such word." 

44. That gentleness . . . as I was, etc. — We should now 
say " that gentleness that I was wont to have." But that 
and as are by origin words of the same signification ; that , 
or thaet, being the neuter form of the Original English 
article or demonstrative, and as being in all probability 
(as remarked by Home Tooke, Diversions of Purley, p. 
147) identical with the German es (still in continual use 
in that language for our that or it). "The word as," 
observes Dr Latham (English Language, p. 423), "pro- 
perly a conjunction, is occasionally used as a relative — 
the man as rides to market. This expression is not to be 
imitated." Clearly not. Such syntax is no longer, if it 
ever was, a part of the language. Eut in many other 
expressions which everybody uses, and the propriety of 
which nobody has ever questioned, as is manifestly not a 
conjunction, but a relative pronoun. Eor example, in 
Pope's "All such reading as was never read," as is the 
nominative to the verb. It acts in the same capacity in 
the common phrases, " as is said," " as regards," " as ap- 
pears," and others similarly constructed. It is not very 
long since the conjunction as was used at least in one 
case in which we now always employ that. "So — as" 
says Bishop Lowth (Introd. to JEng. Gram.), "was used 
by the writers of the last [17th] century to express a 
consequence, instead of so — that. Swift [who died 1745], 
I believe, is the last of our good writers who has fre- 
quently used this manner of expression. It seems 
improper, and is deservedly grown obsolete." That it is 
obsolete cannot be disputed, and it would therefore be an 
impropriety in modern writing ; but Home Tooke is right 
in objecting to Lowth that there is nothing naturally or 
essentially wrong in it ; it is wrong, if at all, only con- 
ventionally. Exactly corresponding to this formerly 
common use of the conjunctions so and as is Shakespeare's 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CESAK. 87 

use in the present passage, and many others, of the pro- 
nouns that and as. In " as I was wont to have," as is 
the accusative of the relative pronoun governed by have, 
" that gentleness, and show of love," being the antecedent. 
The practice, common in most or all languages, of em- 
ploying the same word as demonstrative and relative, is 
familiarized to us in English by our habitual use of that 
in both capacities. 

44. Over your friend that loves you. — It is friends in 
the Second Folio. 

45. Merely upon myself. — Merely (from the Latin merus 
and mere) means purely, only. It separates that which 
it designates or qualifies from everything else. But in so 
doing the chief or most emphatic reference may be made 
either to that which is included, or to that which is ex- 
cluded. In modern English it is always to the latter ; by 
"merely upon myself" we should now mean upon nothing 
else except myself; the nothing else is that which the 
merely makes prominent. In Shakespeare's day the other 
reference was the more common, that namely to what was 
included ; and "merely upon myself" meant upon myself 
altogether, or without regard to anything else. Myself 
was that which the merely made prominent. So when 
Hamlet, speaking of the world, says (i. 2) " Things rank 
and gross in nature possess it merely" he by the merely 
brings the possession before the mind, and characterizes 
it as complete and absolute ; but by the same term now 
the prominence would be given to something else from 
which the possession might be conceived to be separable ; 
"possess it merely" would mean have nothing beyond 
simply the possession of it (have, it might be, no right to 
it, or no enjoyment of it). It is not necessary that that 
which is included, though thus emphasized, should there- 
fore be more definitely conceived than that with which it 
is contrasted. So, again, when in Henry VIII. 9 Hi. 2 
(whoever may have written that Play, or this passage), 



88 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

the Earl of Surrey charges Wolsey with having sent large 
supplies of substance to Rome " to the mere undoing of 
all the kingdom," he means to the complete undoing of 
all the kingdom, to nothing less than such undoing ; but 
in our modern English the words would sound as if the 
speaker's meaning were, to nothing more than the undoing 
of the kingdom. The mere would lead us to think of 
something else, some possible aggravation of the undoing 
(such, for instance, as the disgrace or infamy), from which 
that was to be conceived as separated. 

The use of merely here is in exact accordance with that 
of mere in Othello, ii. 2, where the Herald proclaims the 
tidings of what he calls " the mere perdition of the Turk- 
ish fleet " (that is, the entire perdition or destruction). 
In Helena's " Ay, surely, mere the truth," in All's Well 
that Ends Well, Hi. 5, mere would seem to have the sense 
of merely (that is, simply, exactly), if there be no misprint. 

Attention to such changes of import or effect, slight as 
they may seem, which many words have undergone, is 
indispensable for the correct understanding of our old 
writers. Their ignorance of the old sense of this same 
word merely has obscured a passage in Bacon to his 
modern editors. In his 58th Essay, entitled " Of Vicis- 
situdes of Things," he says ; " As for conflagrations and 
great droughts, they do not merely dispeople and destroy" 
— meaning, as the train of the reasoning clearly requires, 
that they do not altogether do so. Most of the editors 
(Mr Montague included) have changed "and destroy" 
into "but destroy;" others leave out the "not" before 
merely ; either change being subversive of the meaning 
of the passage and inconsistent with the context. The 
reading of the old copies is confirmed by the Latin trans- 
lation, done under Bacon's own superintendence : — " Hlse 
populum penitus non absorbent aut destruunt." 

So in the 3rd Essay, " Of Unity in Religion," when we 
are told that extremes would be avoided " if the points 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C^SAR. 89 

fundamental and of substance in religion were truly dis- 
cerned and distinguished from points not merely of faith, 
but of opinion, order, or good intention," the meaning is, 
from points not altogether of faith, — not, were distinguish- 
ed not only from points of faith, as a modern reader would 
be apt to understand it. 

45. Passions of some difference. — The meaning seems 
to be, of some discordance, somewhat conflicting passions. 
So we have a few lines after, " poor Brutus, with himself 
at war." 

45. Conceptions only proper to myself. — Thoughts and 
feelings relating exclusively to myself. 

45. To my behaviours. — We have lost this plural. But 
we still say, though with some difference of meaning, both 
" My manner" and " My manners." 

45. Be you one. — There are various kinds of being, or 
of existing. "What is here meant is, Be in your belief and 
assurance ; equivalent to Rest assured that you are. 

45. Nor construe any further my neglect. — further is 
the word in the old copies ; but Mr Collier, I observe, in 
his one volume edition prints farther. Is this one of the 
corrections of his MS. annotator ? It is sometimes sup- 
posed that, as farther answers to far, so further answers 
to forth. But far and forth , or fore, are really only dif- 
ferent forms of the same word, different corruptions or 
modernizations of the old Original English feor or forth. 

46. / have much mistook your passion. — That is, the 
feeling under which you are suffering. Patience and pas- 
sion (both from the Latin potior) equally mean suffering ; 
the notions of quiet and of agitation which they have 
severally acquired, and which have made the common 
signification of the one almost the opposite of that of 
the other, are merely accidental adjuncts. It may be 
seen, however, from the use of the word passion here and 
in the preceding speech, that its proper meaning was not 
so completely obscured and lost sight of in Shakespeare's 



90 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. ' [ACT I. 

day as it has come to be in ours, when it retains the no- 
tion of suffering only in two or three antique expressions ; 
such as the iliac passion, and the passion of our Saviour 
(with Passion Week) . — Though it is no longer accounted 
correct to say I have mistook, or I have wrote, such forms 
were in common use even till far on in the last century. 
]N"or has the analogy of the reformed manner of expres- 
sion been yet completely carried out. In some cases we 
have even lost the more correct form after having once 
had it : we no longer, for instance, say I have stricken, 
as they did in Shakespeare's day, but only I have struck. 
47. But by reflection, etc. — The " other things," must, 
apparently, if we interpret the words with reference to 
their connexion, be the reflectors or mirrors spoken of 
by Cassius. Taken by itself, however, the expression 
might rather seem to mean that the eye discovers its own 
existence by its power of seeing other things. The verse 
in the present speech is thus ingeniously broken up in 
the original edition : — 

"No, Cassius: 
For the eye sees not itself but by reflection, 
By some other things." 

It may still be suspected that all is not quite right, and 
possibly some words have dropped out. " By reflection, 
by some other things " is hardly Shakespeare's style. It 
is not customary with him to employ a word which he 
finds it necessary thus to attempt immediately to amend, 
or supplement or explain, by another. — It is remarkable 
that in the first line of this speech the three last Folios 
turn the itself into himself. Mr Collier, nevertheless, 
prints itself Is this a restoration of his MS. annotator ? 
There is a remarkable coincidence, both of thought and 
of expression, between what we have here and the follow- 
ing passage in Troilus and Cressida, Hi. 3 ; — 

" Nor doth the eye itself, 
That most pure spirit of sense, behold itself." 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CJ2SAR. 91 

And it may be worth noting that these lines appear only 
in the two original Quarto editions of the Play (1609), 
and are not in any of the Folios. 

48. Many of the test respect. — A lost phrase, no longer 
permissible even in poetry, although our only modern 
equivalent is the utterly unpoetical "many persons of the 
highest respectability." So, again, in the present Play, 
we have in 780, " Thou art a fellow of a good respect." 

50c Therefore, good Brutus, etc. — The eager, impatient 
temper of Cassius, absorbed in his own one idea, is vividly 
expressed by his thus continuing his argument as if with- 
out appearing to have even heard Brutus's interrupting 
question ; for such is the only interpretation which his 
therefore would seem to admit of. 

50. And he not jealous on me. — This is the reading of 
all the Polios ; and it has been restored to the text by 
Mr Knight, who does not, however, produce any other 
example of the same syntax. The other modern editors 
generally, with the exception of Mr Collier, have changed 
the on into of And everywhere else, I believe, Shake- 
speare writes jealous of But there seems to be no na- 
tural reason, independently of usage, why the adjective 
might not take the one preposition as well as the other. 
They used to say enamoured on formerly. In the same 
manner, although the common form is to eat of yet in 
Macbeth, i. 3, we have, as the words stand in the first 
three Polios, " Have we eaten on the insane root." So, 
although we commonly say "seized of" we have in 
Hamlet, i. 1, " All those his lands Which he stood seized 
on" And there is the familiar use of on for of in the 
popular speech, of which we have also an example in 
Hamlet in the Clown's "You lie out on't, Sir " (v. 1). 

50. Were I a common laugher. — Pope made this cor- 
rection, in which he has been followed by all subsequent 
editors. In all the editions before his the reading is 
laughter ; and the necessity or propriety of the change is 



92 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

perhaps not so unquestionable as it has been generally 
thought. Neither word seems to be perfectly satisfactory. 
44 "Were I a common laughter" might seem to derive some 
support from the expression of the same speaker in 562 : 
" Hath Cassius lived to be but mirth and laughter to his 
Brutus?" 

50. To stale with ordinary oaths my love. — Johnson, 
the only commentator who notices this expression, inter- 
prets it as meaning, " to invite every new protester to 
my affection by the stale, or allurement, of customary 
oaths." Eut surely the more common sense of the word 
stale ', both the verb and the noun, involving the notion 
of insipid or of little worth or estimation, is far more 
natural here. Who forgets Enobarbus's phrase in his 
enthusiastic description of Cleopatra {Antony and Cleo- 
patra, ii. 2) ; " Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale 
Her infinite variety"? So in 498, " Staled by other men." 

50. And after scandal them. — We have lost the verb 
scandal altogether, and we scarcely use the other form to 
scandalize, except in the sense of the Hellenistic okciv- 
$a\i£(o, to shock, to give offence. Both had formerly also 
the sense of to defame or traduce. 

51. What means this shouting? etc. — Here is the 
manner in which this passage is given in the original 
edition : — 

" Bra. What means this Showting ? 
I do feare, the People choose Ccesar 
For their King. 

Cassi. I, do yon feare it ? " 

53. If it he anglit toward. — All that the prosody de- 
mands here is that the word toward be pronounced in 
two syllables ; the accent may be either on the first or 
the second. Toward when an adjective has, I believe, 
always the accent on the first syllable in Shakespeare; 
but its customary pronunciation may have been otherwise 
in his day when it was a preposition, as it is here. Milton, 



sc. 2. J Julius CjEsab. 93 

however, in the few cases in which he does not run the 
two syllables into one, always accents the first. And he 
uses both toward and towards. 

53. Set Honour in one eye, etc. — This passage has oc- 
casioned some discussion. Johnson's explanation is : — 
" When Brutus first names Honour and Death, he calmly 
declares them indifferent; but, as the image kindles in 
his mind, he sets Honour above life." It does not seem 
to be necessary to suppose any such change or growth 
either of the image or the sentiment. What Brutus 
means by saying that he will look upon Honour and 
Death indifferently, if they present themselves together, 
is merely that, for the sake of the honour, he will not 
mind the death, or the risk of death, by which it may be 
accompanied ; he will look as fearlessly and steadily upon 
the one as upon the other. He will think the honour to 
be cheaply purchased even by the loss of life ; that price 
will never make him falter or hesitate in clutching at 
such a prize. He must be understood to set honour 
above life from the first ; that he should ever have felt 
otherwise for a moment would have been the height of 
the unheroic. — The convenient elisions V the and o' the 
have been almost lost to our modern English verse, at 
least in composition of the ordinary regularity and dignity. 
Byron, however, has in a well-known passage ventured 
upon " Hived in our bosoms like the bag o' the bee." 

54. Your outward favour. — A man's favour is his aspect 
or appearance. "In beauty," says Bacon, in his 43rd 
Essay, " that of favour is more than that of colour ; and 
that of decent and gracious motion more than that of 
favour." The word is now lost to us in that sense ; but we 
still use favoured with well, ill, and perhaps other qualify- 
ing terms, for featured or looking ; as in Gen. xli. 4 : — 
" The ill-favoured and lean-fleshed kine did eat up the 
seven well-favoured and fat kine." Favour seems to be 
used for face from the same confusion or natural trans- 



94 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

ference of meaning between the expressions for the feel- 
ing in the mind and the outward indication of it in the 
look that has led to the word countenance, which com- 
monly denotes the latter, being sometimes employed, by 
a process the reverse of what we have in the case of 
favour, in the sense of at least one modification of the 
former ; as when we speak of any one giving something 
his countenance, or countenancing it. In this case, how- 
ever, it ought to be observed that countenance has the 
meaning, not simply of favourable feeling or approbation, 
but of its expression or avowal. The French terms from 
which we have borrowed our favour and countenance do 
not appear to have either of them undergone the trans- 
ference of meaning which has befallen the English forms. 
But contenance, which is still also used by the French in 
the sense of material capacity, has drifted far away from 
its original import in coming to signify one's aspect or 
physiognomy. It is really also the same word with the 
Trench and English continence and the Latin continentia. 

54. For my single self. — Here is a case in which we 
are still obliged to adhere to the old way of writing and 
printing my self Vid. 56. 

54. / had as lief — Lief (sometimes written leef or 
leve), in the comparative liefer or lever, in the superlative 
liefest, is the Original English leof of the same meaning 
with our modern dear. " No modern author, I believe," 
says Home Tooke (D. of P. 261), "would now venture 
any of these words in a serious passage ; and they seem 
to be cautiously shunned or ridiculed in common con- 
versation, as a vulgarity. But they are good English 
words, and more frequently used by our old English writ- 
ers than any other word of a corresponding signification." 
The common modern substitute for lief is soon, and for 
liefer, sooner or rather, which last is properly the compa- 
rative of rath, or rathe, signifying early, not found in 
Shakespeare, but used in one expression — "the rathe 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C^SAB. 95 

primrose" (Lyciclas, 142) — by Milton, who altogether 
ignores lief. Lief, liefer, and liefest, are all common in 
Spenser. Shakespeare has lief pretty frequently, but 
never liefer ; and liefest occurs only in the Second Part of 
King Henry VI., where, in Hi. 1, we have " My liefest 
liege." In the same Play, too (i. 1), we have " Mine 
alderliefest sovereign," meaning dearest of all. " This 
beautiful word," says Mr Knight, " is a Saxon compound. 
Alder, of all, is thus frequently joined with an adjective 
of the superlative degree, — as alderfirst, alderlast." But 
it cannot be meant that such combinations are frequent 
in the English of Shakespeare's day. They do occur, in- 
deed, in a preceding stage of the language. Alder is a 
corrupted or at least modified form of the Original Eng- 
lish genitive plural alter, or allre ; it is that strengthened 
by the interposition of a supporting d (a common expe- 
dient). Alter, with the same signification, is still familiar 
in German compounds. — The effect and construction of 
lief in Middle English may be seen in the following ex- 
amples from Chaucer : — " Eor him was lever han at his 
beddes head" (C. T. Pro. 295), that is, To him it was 
dearer to have (lever a monosyllable, beddes a dissyllable) ; 
"No, though I say it, I n 5 am not lefe to gabbe" (C. T. 
3510), that is, I am not given to prate ; " I hadde lever 
dien," that is, I should hold it preferable to die, And 
Chaucer has also " Al be him loth or lefe" (C. T. 1839), 
that is, "Whether it be to him agreeable or disagreeable ; 
and "Eor lefe ne loth" (C. T. 13062), that is, Eor love 
nor loathing. — "We may remark the evidently intended 
connexion in sound between the lief and the live, or 
rather the attraction by which the one word has naturally 
produced or evoked the other. 

54. Ccesar said to me, etc. — In the Second Eolio it is 
" Caesar saies to me." And three lines lower down it is 
there "Accounted as I was." Other errors of that copy 



96 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT T. 

in the same speech are " chasing with her shores," and 
" He had a Feaher when he was in Spaine." 

54. Arrive the point proposed. — Arrive without the now 
indispensable at or in is found also in the Third JPart of 
King Henry VI. (v. 3) : — 

"Those powers that the queen 
Hath raised in Gallia have arrived our coast." 

And Milton has the same construction (P. L. ii. 409) : — 

"Ere he arrive 
The happy isle." 

54. 7", as JEneas, etc. — This commencement of the sen- 
tence, although necessitating the not strictly grammatical 
repetition of the first personal pronoun, is in fine rhetori- 
cal accordance with the character of the speaker, and 
vividly expresses his eagerness to give prominence to his 
own part in the adventure. Even the repetition (of which, 
by the by, we have another instance in this same speech) 
assists the effect. At the same time, it may just be noted 
that the / here is not printed differently in the original 
edition from the adverb of affirmation in " Ay, and that 
tongue of his," a few lines lower down. Nor are the two 
words anywhere distinguished. It may be doubted 
whether Macbeth's great exclamation (ii. 2) should not 
be printed (as it is by Steevens) "Wake Duncan with 
thy knocking : Ay, would thou could' st ! " (instead of " I 
would," as commonly given). 

54. The old Anchises, etc. — This is a line of six feet ; 
but it is quite different in its musical character from what 
is called an Alexandrine, such as rounds off the Spenser- 
ian stanza, and also frequently makes the second line in 
a rhymed couplet or the third in a triplet. It might per- 
haps be going too far to say that a proper Alexandrine is 
inadmissible in blank verse. There would seem to be 
nothing in the principle of blank verse opposed to the 
occasional employment of the Alexandrine ; but the 



SC. 2.] JULIUS OESAK. 97 

custom of our modern poetry excludes such a variation 
even from dramatic blank verse ; and unquestionably by 
far the greater number of the lines in Shakespeare which 
have been assumed by some of his editors to be Alexan- 
drines are only instances of the ordinary heroic line with 
the very common peculiarity of certain superfluous short 
syllables. That is all that we have here,— the ordinary heroic 
line overflowing its bounds, — which, besides that great 
excitement will excuse such irregularities, or even demand 
them, admirably pictures the emotion of Cassius, as it 
were acting his feat over again as he relates it, — with the 
shore the two were making for seeming, in their increasing 
efforts, to retire before them, — and panting with his re- 
membered toil. 

51. Sis coward lips did from their colour fly. — There 
can, I think, be no question that "Warburton is right in 
holding that we have here a pointed allusion to a soldier 
flying from his colours. The lips would never otherwise 
be made to fly from their colour, instead of their colour 
from them. The figure is quite in Shakespeare's manner 
and spirit. But we may demur to calling it, with War- 
burton, merely " a poor quibble." It is a forcible expres- 
sion of scorn and contempt. Such passions are, by their 
nature, not always lofty and decorous, but rather creative 
and reckless, and more given to the pungent than the 
elegant. 

51. Did lose his lustre. — There is no personification 
here. His was formerly neuter as well as masculine, or 
the genitive of It as well as of He ; and his lustre, mean- 
ing the lustre of the eye, is the same form of expression 
that we have in the texts : — " The fruit-tree vieldin^ fruit 
after his kind, whose seed is in itself" {Gen. i. 11) ; " It 
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" 
(Gen. Hi. 15) ; "If the salt have lost his savour" (Matt. 
v. 13, and Luke xiv. 31) ; " If the salt have lost his salt- 
ness" (Mark ix. 50) • ''When they were past the first 

H 



98 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that 
leadeth unto the city, which opened to them of his own 
accord" {Acts ccii. 10) ; "His throne was like the fiery 
flame, and his wheels as burning fire " {Dan. vii. 9) ; and 
others. The word Its does not occur in the authorized 
translation of the Bible; its place is always supplied 
either by His or by Thereof. So again, in the present 
Play, in 523, we have " That every nice offence should 
bear his comment;" and in Antony and Cleopatra, v. 1, 
"The heart where mine his thoughts did kindle." One 
of the most curious and decisive examples of the neuter 
his occurs in Coriolanus, i. 1 : — 

u it [the belly] tauntingly replied 
To the discontented members, the mutinous parts 
That envied his receipt." 

Its, however, is found in Shakespeare. There is one in- 
stance in Measure for Measure, i. 2, where Lucio's remark 
about coming to a composition with the King of Hungary 
draws the reply, " Heaven grant us its peace, but not the 
King of Hungary's." The its here, it may be observed, 
has the emphasis. It is printed without the apostrophe 
both in the First and in the Second Folio. But the most 
remarkable of the Plays in regard to this particular is 
probably The Winter's Tale. Here, in i. 2, we have so 
many as three instances in a single speech of Leontes : — 

"How sometimes Nature will betray it's folly? 
It's tendernesse ? and make it selfe a Pastime 
To harder bosomes ? Looking on the Lynes 
Of my Boyes face, me thoughts I did requoyle 
Twentie three yeeres, and saw my selfe ynbreech'd, 
In my greene Velvet Coat; my Dagger muzzel'd, 
Least it should bite it's Master, and so prove 
(As Ornaments oft do's) too dangerous." 

So stands the passage in the First Folio. Nor does the 
new pronoun here appear to be a peculiaritv of expression 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C^SAE. 99 

characteristic of the excited Sicilian king ; a little while 
after in the same scene we have the same form from the 
month of Camillo : — 

" Be plainer with, me, let me know my Trespas 
By it's owne visage." 

And again, in iii. 3, we have Antigonns, when abont to 
lay down the child in Bohemia, observing that he believes 
it to be the wish of Apollo that 

"it should heere be laide 
(Either for life, or death) vpon the earth 
Of it's right Father." 

Xor is this all. There are two other passages of the 
same Play in which the modern editors also give ns its ; 
but in these the original text has it. The first is in ii. 3, 
where Leontes, in directing Antigonns to carry away the 
"female bastard" to some foreign land, enjoins him that 
he there leave it 

" (Without more mercy) to it owne protection." 

The other is in iii. 2, where Hermione's words stand in 
both the First and Second Folio, 

" The innocent milke in it most innocent mouth." 

It is a mistake to assnme, as the modern editors do, 
that it in these instances is a misprint for its : Dr Gruest 
(Phil. Pro. i. 280) has observed that in the dialects of 
the Xorth-AVestern Counties formerly it was sometimes 
nsed for its ; and that, accordingly, we have not only in 
Shakespeare's King John, ii. 1, " Goe to yt grandame, 
child .... and it grandame will give yt a plumb," but 
in Ben Jonson's Silent Woman, ii. 3, "It knighthood 
and it friends." So in Lear, i. 4, we have in a speech of 
the Fool, " For yon know, Xunckle, the Hedge-Sparrow 
fed the Cuckoo so long, that it's had it head bit off by it 
yonng" (that is, that it has had its head, — not that it 
had its head, as the modern editors give the passage, after 

h 2 



100 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

the Second Folio, in which it stands, "that it had its head 
bit off by it young"). This use of it is still familiar in 
the popular speech of the West Biding of Yorkshire, and 
even in the English of some parts of Ireland. So, long 
before its was generally received, we have it self commonly 
printed in two w^ords, evidently under the impression that 
it was a possessive, of the same syntactical force with the 
pronouns in my self your self Iter self. And even now 
we do not write itsself Formerly, too, according to Dr 
Guest, they often said even " The King wife," etc., for 
"The King's wife/' So he holds that in such modern 
phrases as " The idea of a thing being abstracted," or " of 
it being abstracted," thing and it are genitives, for thing's 
and its. 

"We have also either it or its in another passage of Lear, 
where Albany, in iv. 2, speaks of "that nature which 
condemns its origin." The passage is not in the Folios ; 
but, if we may trust to Jennens, the First Quarto has ith, 
the Second it, for the its of the modern text. Both those 
Quartos are of 1608 ; and there is also a third of the 
same year, but the reading in that is not noted by the 
commentators. 

I am indebted to Dr Trench, the Dean of Westminster, 
for calling my attention to one passage in our English 
Bible, Levit. xxv. 5, in which, although the modern re- 
prints give us " that which groweth of its own accord," 
the reading in the original edition is "of it own accord." 
In Luther's German version the phrase here is the same 
that is employed in Acts xii. 10, quoted above, where we 
have " of his own accord: " — von ihm setter in the one case, 
von ihr selbst in the other. 

Dr Guest asserts that its was used generally by the 
dramatists of the age to which the authorized version of 
the Bible belongs, and also by many of their contempor- 
aries. Dr Trench, in his English, Past and Present, 
doubts whether Milton has once admitted it into Paradise 



sc. 2.] julius cm:sa.r. 101 

Lost, "although, when that was composed, others fre- 
quently allowed it." The common authorities give us no 
help in such matters as this ; no notice is taken of the 
word Its either in Todd's Verlal Index to Milton, or in 
Mrs Clarke's elaborate Concordance to Shakespeare. But 
Milton does use Its occasionally; as, e. g. (P. L. i. 254), 
" The mind is its own place, and in itself; " and (P. L. 
iv. 813), "No falsehood can endure Touch of celestial 
temper, but returns Of force to its own likeness." Gener- 
ally, however, he avoids the word, and easily manages to 
do so by personifying most of his substantives ; it is only 
when this cannot be done, as in the above examples, that 
he reluctantly accepts the services of the little parvenu 
monosyllable. 

Mr Singer, in a note to his edition of the Essays and 
Wisdom of the Ancients, p. 200, seems to intimate that 
its is nowhere used by Bacon. Like Shakespeare and 
other writers of the time, he has frequently his in the 
neuter. 

Dr Trench notices the fact of the occurrence of its in 
Roivley's Poems as decisive against their genuineness. 
He observes, also, that "Dryden, when, in one of his 
fault-finding moods with the great men of the preceding 
generation, he is taking Ben Jonson to task for general 
inaccuracy in his English diction, among other counts of 
his indictment, quotes this line of Catiline, 'Though 
heaven should speak with all his wrath at once ; ' and pro- 
ceeds, ' Heaven is ill syntax with his? " This is a curious 
evidence of how completely the former humble condition 
and recent rise of the now fully established vocable had 
come to be generally forgotten in a single generation. 

The need of it, indeed, must have been much felt. If 
it was convenient to have the two forms He and It in the 
nominative, and Him and It in the other cases, a similar 
distinction between the Masculine and the Neuter of the 
genitive must have been equally required for perspicuous 



102 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

expression. Even the personifying power of his was im- 
paired by its being applied to both genders. Milton, 
consequently, it may be noticed, prefers wherever it is 
possible the feminine to the masculine personification, as 
if he felt that the latter was always obscure from the risk 
of the his being taken for the neuter pronoun. Thus we 
have (P. L. i. 723) " The ascending pile Stood fixed her 
stately height ; " (ii. 4) " The gorgeous East with richest 
hand Showers on her kings ; " (ii. 175) " "What if all Her 
stores were opened, and this firmament Of hell should 
spout her cataracts of fire;" (ii. 271) "This desert soil 
"Wants not her hidden lustre;" (ii. 584) "Lethe, the 
river of oblivion, rolls Her watery labyrinth ; " (ice. 1103) 
"The fig-tree . . . spreads her arms;" (Com. 396) 
" Beauty . . . had need ... To save her blossoms and 
defend her fruit;" (Com. 468) "The soul grows clotted 
. . . till she quite lose The divine property of her first 
being ; " and so on, continually and habitually, or upon 
system. His masculine personifications are comparatively 
rare, and are only ventured upon either where he does 
not require to use the pronoun, or where its gender can- 
not be mistaken. 

Milton himself, however, nowhere, I believe, uses his in 
a neuter sense. # He felt too keenly the annoyance of 
such a sense of it always coming in the way to spoil or 
prevent any other use he might have made of it. The 
modern practice is the last of three distinct stages through 
which the language passed as to this matter in the course 
of less than a century. Eirst, we have his serving for 

* Unless the following were to be considered as an instance : — 
" It was a mountain, at whose verdant feet 
A spacious plain, outstretched in circuit wide, 
Lay pleasant ; from his side two rivers flowed." 

Par. Reg. Hi. 255. 
But the feet, instead of foot, would seem to intimate that we are to re- 
gard the mountain as personified here. 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CJESAK. 103 

both masculine and neuter; secondly, we have Ids re- 
stricted to the masculine, and the neuter left without or 
with hardly any recognized form ; thirdly, we have the 
defect of the second stage remedied by the frank adoption 
of the heretofore rejected its. And the most curious 
thing of all in the history of the word its is the extent to 
which, before its recognition as a word admissible in seri- 
ous composition, even the occasion for its employment 
was avoided or eluded. This is very remarkable in Shake- 
speare. The very conception which we express by its 
probably does not occur once in his works for ten times 
that it is to be found in any modern writer, So that we 
may say the invention, or adoption, of this form has 
changed not only our English style, but even our manner 
of thinking. 

The Original English personal pronoun was, in the 
Nominative singular, He for the Masculine, Heo for the 
Feminine, and Hit for the Neuter. He we still retain ; 
for Heo we have substituted She, apparently a modifica- 
tion of Seo, the Feminine of the Demonstrative (Se 9 Seo, 
Timet) ; Hit we have converted into It (though the aspi- 
rate is still often heard in the Scottish dialect). The 
Grenitive was Hire for the Feminine (whence our modern 
Her), and His both for the Masculine and the Neuter. 
So also the modern German has ihr for the Feminine, 
and only one form, sein, for both the Masculine and the 
Neuter. But in the inflection of this single form the two 
genders in our ancient English were distinguished both 
in the Nominative and in the Accusative, whereas in 
German they are distinguished in the Accusative only. 
They are the same in the Genitive and Dative in both 
languages. 

It is to be understood, of course, that the its, however 
convenient, is quite an irregular formation : the t of it 
(originally kit) is merely the sign of the neuter gender, 
which does not enter into the inflection, leaving the 



104 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENT AKY. [ACT I. 

natural genitive of that gender (hi, his) substantially 
identical with that of the masculine (he, lies, his). 

54, 55. — And bear the palm alone. — Another general 
shout ! — Two hemistichs or broken lines thus following 
one another are not necessarily to be regarded as pros- 
odically connected, any more than if they were several 
sentences asunder. The notion that two such consecutive 
fragments were always intended by Shakespeare to make 
a complete verse has led the modern editors, more especi- 
ally Steevens, into a great deal of uncalled-for chopping 
and tinkering of the old text. 

56. But in ourselves. — In the original edition divided 
" our selves," exactly as " our stars " in the preceding line. 
And so always with our self, your self, her self, my self, 
thy self, and also it self, but never with himself, or them- 
selves. Yid. 54, 

do. What should be in that C&sar ? — A form of speech 
now gone out. It was a less blunt and direct way of 
saying What is there ? or What may there be ? These 
more subtle and delicate modes of expression, by the use 
of the subjunctive for the indicative and of the past for 
the present, which characterize not only the Greek and 
Latin languages but even the German, have for the greater 
part perished in our modern English. The deep insight 
and creative force — the "great creating nature" — which 
gave birth to our tongue has dried up under the benumb- 
ing touch of the logic by which it has been trained and 
cultivated. 

56. More than yours. — Here and everywhere else, it 
may be noticed once for all, our modern than is then in 
the old text. Vid. Prolegomena, Sect. v. 

56. Become the mouth as well. — Always aswell, as one 
w r ord, in the First Folio. 

56. The breed of noble bloods. — We scarcely now use 
this plural. Shakespeare has it several times ; as after- 
wards in 645, "I know young bloods look for a time of 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CiESAK. 105 

rest ; " in Much Ado About Nothing, iii. 3, where Boraeio 
remarks how giddily fashion " turns about all the hot 
bloods between fourteen and five and thirty;" in The 
Winter s Tale, i. 1, where Leontes says, " To mingle 
friendship far is mingling bloods;" in King John, ii. 1, 
where Philip of France, to the boast of John before the 
walls of Angiers that he brings as witnesses to his right 
and title " twice fifteen thousand hearts of English breed," 
replies (aside) that 

" As many and as well-born bloods as those 
Stand in his face to contradict Ms claim." 

56. That her wide walls encompassed but one man. — The 
old reading is "wide walks." Despite the critical canon 
which warns us against easy or obvious amendments, it 
is impossible not to believe that we have a misprint here. 
What Bome's wide ivalks may mean is not obvious ; still 
less, how she could be encompassed by her walks, how- 
ever wide. The correction to walls has the authority of 
Mr Collier's MS. annotator, but had been conjecturally 
adopted down to the time of Malone by most of the 
modern editors, from Bo we inclusive. 

56. Now is it Borne indeed, and room enough. — Shake- 
speare' s pronunciation of Borne seems to have been Boom. 
Besides the passage before us we have afterwards in the 
present Play (368) "No Borne of safety for Octavius 
yet ; " and in King John, iii. 1, " That I have room with 
Borne to curse a while." In the First Bart of King 
Henry the Sixth, it is true, we have the other pronunci- 
ation; there (iii. 2), the Bishop of "Winchester having 
exclaimed "Borne shall remedy this," "Warwick replies 
" Boam thither, then." This little fact is not without its 
significance in reference to the claim of that Play to be 
laid at Shakespeare's door. 

56. But one only man. — In the original text " but one 
onely man," probably indicating that the pronunciation 



106 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

of the numeral and of the first syllable of the adverb was 
the same. 

56. There was a Brutus once, that would have Iroolced. 
— To Irooh (originally Irucan), for to endure, to submit 
to, is one of those old words which every one still under- 
stands but no one uses, unless it may be some studious 
imitator of the antique. 

57. That you do love one, I am nothing jealous. — I 
am nowhat jealous, doubtful, suspicious, in regard to its 
being the fact that you love me. This seems to be 
the grammatical resolution of a construction which, like 
many similar ones familiar to the freer spirit of the 
language two centuries ago, would now scarcely be ven- 
tured upon. 

57. / have some aim. — Aim, in old French eyme, esme, 
and estme, is the same w r ord with esteem (from the Latin 
cestimatio and cestimare), and should therefore signify 
properly a judgment or conjecture of the mind, which is 
very nearly its meaning here. We might now say, in 
the same sense, I have some notion. In modern English 
the word has acquired the additional meaning of an in- 
tention to hit, or catch, or in some other way attain, that 
to which the view is directed. It does not seem impossi- 
ble that the French name for the loadstone, aimant, may 
be from the same root, although it has usually been con- 
sidered to be a corruption of adamant. A ship's reckon- 
ings are called in French estimes, w r hich is undoubtedly 
the same word with our aims. In the French of the 
early part of the sixteenth century we find esme and esme 
(or esmez, as it was commonly written) confounded with 
the totally different aimer, to love. Rabelais, for instance, 
writes lien ayniez for lien esmez, well disposed. See 
Duchat's Note on liv. I., ch. 5. 

57. For this present. — So, in the Absolution, "that 
those things may please him which we do at this present." 
This expression, formerly in universal use and good repute, 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C^SAR. 107 

now remains only a musty law phrase, never admitted 
into ordinary composition except for ludicrous effect. 

57. So with love I might entreat you. — This form of ex- 
pression is still preserved both in our own language and 
in German. Thus {John i. 25) : — " "Warum taufest du 
denn, so du nicht Christus bist ?" or, " So Gott will" (If 
God please). The conjunction thus used is commonly 
said to be equivalent to if. But so, according to Home 
Tooke (J), of P., 147), is merely the Mceso- Gothic de- 
monstrative pronoun, and signifies properly this or that. 
In German, though commonly, as with ourselves, only an 
adverb or conjunction, it may still be also used pronomin- 
ally; as Das Buch, so ihr mir gegeben halt (the book 
which you gave me). Something of the same kind, as 
we have already seen (44), takes place even in English 
with as, which is perhaps only another form of so or sa. 
Upon this theory, all that so will perform in such a pass- 
age as the present will be to mark and separate the clause 
which it heads by an emphatic introductory compendium : 
— That (or this), namely, that with love I might, etc. ; 
and the fact of the statement in the clause being a sup- 
position, or assumption, will be left to be inferred. That 
fact, however, would be expressed by the so according to 
the doctrine of Dr Webster, who conceives the word to 
be derived from some Hebrew or other root signifying to 
compose, to set, to still. " This sense," he affirms, " is re- 
tained in the use of the word by milkmaids, who sav to 
cows so, so, that is, stand still, remain as you are." Such 
an application of the term, I apprehend, is not peculiar 
to the milkmaid tongue, — a familiarity with which, how- 
ever, is certainly carrying linguistic knowledge a great 
way. — The First Folio points, blunderingly, "I would 
not so (with love I might intreat you)." 

57. Be any further moved. — Here again, as in 45, Mr 
Collier prints farther, though further is the reading of 
both the First and the Second Folio. 



108 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTAKT. [ACT I. 

57. Chew upon this. — "We have lost the native word in 
this application ; but we retain the metaphor, only trans- 
lating chew into the Latin equivalent, ruminate. 

57. Brutus had rather be . . . than to repute. — The 
sense of the verb Have in the phrase Had rather is pecu- 
liar. Johnson calls it barbarous. "Webster asks, " Is 
not this phrase a corruption of would rather ?" It has 
the same sense, as we have seen (54), in Had as lief, and 
in the older Had liefer, or lever. This verb (one very 
variously applied in some other languages, — witness the 
il y a of the French, the vi ha or havvi of the Italian, the 
ha or hay of the Spanish, as well as certain constructions 
of the Greek tx eiv ) ma y naYe been employed by us for- 
merly with more latitude of signification than now. We 
still say Have at him, and, with a somewhat different sense, 
Have at you. Even Shakespeare has, in Rich. II, Hi. 3, 
" Me rather had my heart might feel your loye 
Than my unpleased eye see your courtesy." 

There is also the phrase, Had like, not yet quite gone 
out, of which all that Dr "Webster has to say is, that it 
seems to be a corruption, — unless, he adds, like be here 
a noun, and used for resemblance or probability (which 
it may be safely affirmed that it is not). The to before 
repute is, apparently, to be defended, if at all, upon the 
ground that had rather is equivalent in import to would 
prefer, and that, although it is only an auxiliary before 
be a villager, it is to be taken as a common verb before to 
repute. It is true that, as we have seen (1), the to was 
in a certain stage of the language sometimes inserted, 
sometimes omitted, both after auxiliaries and after other 
verbs ; but that was hardly the style of Shakespeare's 
age. We certainly could not now say " I had rather to 
repute ;" and I do not suppose that any one would have 
directly so written or spoken then. The irregularity is 
softened or disguised in the passage before us by the in- 
tervening words. 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CJESAE. 109 

57. Under these hard conditions as. — This is tlie read- 
ing in all the old copies ; these — as where we should now 
say such — as, or those — that. If such, so, as, that (or 
this) be all etymologically of the same or nearly the same 
signification, they would naturally, till custom regulated 
their use, and assigned a distinct function to each, be 
interchangeable one with another. Thus in 129 we have 
" To such a man That is no fleering tell-tale." Although 
those — as, or that — as, is common, however, these — as is 
certainly at any rate unusual. Mr Collier prints, upon 
the authority of his MS. corrector, "under such hard 
conditions." I should suspect the true reading to be 
" under those hard conditions." Vid. 44. 

57. Is like. — This form of expression is not quite, but 
nearly, gone out. "We now commonly say is likely. 

58. I am glad that my weak words. — In this first line 
of the speech of Cassius and the last of the preceding 
speech of Brutus we have two hemistichs, having no pros- 
odical connexion. It was never intended that they 
should form one line, and no torturing can make them 
do so. 

He-enter Caesar. — In the original text it is Enter. 

60. What hath proceeded. — That is, simply, happened, 
— -a sense which the verb has now lost. 

61. I will do so, etc. — Throughout the Play, the ins of 
Cassius (as also of Lucilius) makes sometimes only one 
syllable, sometimes two, as here. 

62. Being crossed in conference, etc. — If the being and 
conference be fully enunciated, as they will be in any but 
the most slovenly reading, we have two supernumerary 
syllables in this line, but both so short that neither the 
mechanism nor the melody of the verse is at all impaired 
by them. 

65. Let me have men about me, etc. — Some of the ex- 
pressions in this speech are evidently suggested by those 
of I^orth in his translation of Plutarch's Life of Csesar : 



HO PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

— " When Caesar's friends complained nnto him of Anto- 
nius and Dolabella, that they pretended [i. e. intended'] 
some mischief towards him, he answered; As for those 
fat men and smooth-combed heads (qnoth he), I never 
reckon of them ; but these pale-visaged and carrion-lean 
people, I fear them most ; meaning Brutus and Cassius." 
65. Such as sleep o' nights. — That is, on nights; as 
o'clock is on clock, and also as aboard is on board, aside 
on side, aloft on loft, alive in life, etc. In the older 
stages of the language the meanings that we now discrim- 
inate by on and in are confused, and are both expressed 
by an, on, un, in, or in composition by the contractions a 
or o. The form here in the original text is a-nights. 

65. Yond Cassius. — Though yond is no longer in use, 
we still have both yon and yonder. The d is probably no 
proper part of the word, but has been added to strengthen 
the sound, as in the word sound itself (from the French 
son), and in many other cases. See, upon the origin of 
Yonder, Dr Latham's Ling. Lang. 375. 

66. JVell given. — Although we no longer say absolutely 
well or ill given (for well or ill disposed), we still say 
given to study, given to drinking, etc. 

67. Yet, if my name. — A poetic idiom for " Tet, if I, 
bearing the name I do." In the case of Caesar the name 
was even more than the representative and most precise 
expression of the person ; it was that in which his power 
chiefly resided, his renown. Every reader of Milton will 
remember the magnificent passage (P. L. ii. 964) : — 

" Behold the throne 
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 
Wide on the wasteful deep ; with him enthroned 
Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things, 
The consort of his reign ; and by them stood 
Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name 
Of Demogorgon." 

67. Liable to fear. — The word liable has been somewhat 
restricted in its application since Shakespeare's time. 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C^ISAE. Ill 

"We should scarcely now speak of a person as liable to 
fear. And see 249 for another application of it still far- 
ther away from our present usage. 

67. Such men as he, etc. — In this and the following 
line we have no fewer than three archaisms, words or forms 
which would not and could not be used by a writer of the 
present day : — he (for are), at heart's ease (for in ease of 
mind), whiles (for while). It would be difficult to show 
that the language has not in each of these instances lost 
something which it would have been the better for re- 
taining. But it seems to be a law of every language 
which has become thoroughly subdued under the domin- 
ion of grammar, that perfectly synonymous terms cannot 
live in it. If varied forms are not saved by having dis- 
tinct senses or functions assigned to each, they are thrown 
off as superfluities and encumbrances. One is selected for 
use, and the others are reprobated, or left to perish from 
mere neglect. The logic of this no doubt is, that verbal 
expression will only be a correct representation of thought 
if there should never be any the slightest variation of the 
one without a corresponding variation of the other. But 
the principle is not necessarily inconsistent with the ex- 
istence of various forms which should be recognized as 
differing in no other respect whatever except only in vocal 
character ; and the language would be at least musically 
richer with more of this kind of variety. It is what it 
regards as the irregularity or lawlessness, however, of 
such logically unnecessary variation that the grammatical 
spirit hates. It would be argued that with two or more 
words of precisely the same signification we should have 
really something like a confusion of two or more lan- 
guages. 

67. For the present stage direction at the end of this 
speech, we have in the original text " Sennit. Exeunt 
CcGsar and his Trained 

69. What hath chanced to-day. — So in 71 ; where, also, 



112 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

most of the modern editions have " what hath chanced," 
Mr Collier's one- volume edition included, although had 
is the word in all the Folios. Instead of to chance in 
this sense we now usually say to happen. Chance is a 
French word (from the cas~ of the Latin casus strength- 
ened by the common expedient of inserting an n) ; hap- 
pen, hap, and also happy, appear to be derivatives from a 
"Welsh word, hap or hah, luck, fortune. The Original 
English verb was befeallan, from which also we have still 
to befall. 

78. Ay, marry, tvas't. — This term of asseveration, marry, 
which Johnson seems to speak of as still in common use 
in his day, is found in Chaucer in the form Mary, and 
appears to be merely a mode of swearing by the Holy 
Virgin. 

78. Every time gentler than other. — I do not know that 
this use of other will be admitted to be of the same nature 
with that which we have in Macbeth, i. 7, where the reading 
of the First Folio is " Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps 
itself, And falls on the other." The other in both pass- 
ages ought perhaps to be considered as a substantive, as 
it still is in other cases, though it is no longer used exactly 
in this way. So in Meas. for Meas. iv. 4 ; — " Every letter 
he hath writ hath disvouched other." 

82. The rabblement shouted. — The first three Folios 
have howted, the Fourth houted. The common reading 
is hooted. But this is entirely inconsistent with the con- 
text. The people applauded when Caesar refused the 
crown, and only hissed or hooted when they thought he 
was about to accept it. Shouted was substituted on con- 
jecture by Hanmer, and almost indicates itself; but it has 
also the support of Mr Collier's MS. annotator. 

82. Their chopped hands. — In the old copies chopt. 
Mr Collier, however, has chapped. 

82. For he swooned. — Swoonded is the word in all the 
Folios. 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CiESAK. 113 

83. Did Ccssar swoon ? — Here s wound is the word in all 
the Folios. 

85. 'Tis very like : he hath the falling sickness. — Like 
is likely, or probable, as in 57. I am surprised to find 
Mr Collier adhering to the blundering punctuation of the 
early copies, " 'lis very like he hath," etc. Caesar's in- 
firmity was notorious ; it is mentioned both by Plutarch 
and Suetonius. 

86. And honest Casca, etc. — The slight interruption to 
the flow of this line occasioned by the supernumerary 
syllable in Casca adds greatly to the effect of the emphatic 
we that follows. It is like the swell of the wave before 
it breaks. 

87. If the tag-rag people. — Txi Goriolanus, Hi. 1, we have 
"Will you hence, before the tag return." "This," says 
IS'ares, " is, perhaps, the only instance of tag without his 
companions rag and bobtail, or at least one of them." 

87. No true man. — Iso honest man, as we should now 
say. Jurymen, as Malone remarks, are still styled " good 
men and true." 

89. He plucked me ope his doublet. — Though we still 
use to ope in poetry, ope as an adjective is now obsolete. 
As for the me in such a phrase as the present, it may be 
considered as being in the same predicament with the my 
in My Lord, or the mon in the French Monsieur, That 
is to say, it has no proper pronominal significancy, but 
merely serves (in so far as it has any effect) to enliven 
or otherwise grace the expression. How completely the 
pronoun is forgotten, — or we may say, quiescent — in such 
a case as that of Monsieur is shown by the common phrase 
" Mon cher monsieur." Vid. 205 and 471. 

The best commentary on the use of the pronoun that 
we have here is the dialogue between Petrucio and his 
servant Grrumio, in Tarn, of Shrew, i. 2 : — " Pet. Villain, 
I say, knock me here soundly. Gru. Knock you here, 
sir ? Why, sir, what am I, sir, that I should knock you 

i 



114 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

here, sir ? 'Pet. Villain, I say, knock me at tbis gate, and 
rap me well, or I'll knock jour knave's pate. Gru. My 
master is grown quarrelsome : I should knock you first, 
And then I know after who comes by the worst. . . . Hor- 
tensio. How now, what's the matter? . . . Gru. Look 
you, sir, — he bid me knock him, and rap him soundly, sir : 
"Well, was it fit for a servant to use his master so ? . . . 
Pet. A senseless villain ! — Good Hortensio, I bade the 
rascal knock upon your gate, And could not get him for 
my heart to do it. Gru. Knock at the gate ? — O heavens ! 
Spake you not these words plain, — ' Sirrah, knock me 
here, Eap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly ? ' 
And come you now with — knocking at the gate ? " 

89. A man of any occupation. — This is explained by 
Johnson as meaning " a mechanic, one of the plebeians 
to whom he offered his throat." Eut it looks as if it had 
more in it than that. In the Polios it is " and I had 
been a man;" and again in 95 u and I tell you." So 
also Bacon writes (Essay 23rd) : — " Certainly it is the 
nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on 
fire, and it were but to roast their eggs;" and (Essay 
40th) : — " Eor time is to be honoured and respected, and 
it were but for her daughters, Confidence and Eeputation." 

95. Marullus and Flavins. — In this instance the Ma- 
rullus is Ilurrellus in the Eirst Eolio (instead of Murel- 
lus, as elsewhere). 

97. I am promised forth. — An old phrase for I have an 
engagement. 

102. He was quick mettle. — This is the reading of all 
the old copies. Mr Collier, however, in his regulated 
text, has mettled^ but not, it would appear, on the authority 
of his MS. corrector. I have allowed the distinction 
made by the modern editors between metal and mettle to 
stand throughout the Play, although there can be little 
doubt that the latter form is merely a corruption of the 
former, and that the supposed two words are the same. 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CJESAE. 115 

In the First Polio it is always mettle ; in 16 and 105, as 
well as here and in 177 and 506. Dr "Webster, however, 
thinks that mettle may be the "Welsh mezwl or methwl, 
mind. 

103. However he puts on. — We should hardly now use 
however, in this sense, with the indicative mood. We 
should have to say, "However he may put on." — This 
tardy form : this shape, semblance, of tardiness or dulness. 

104. / will come home to you . . . Come home to me. — 
To come home to one, for to come to one's house, is an- 
other once common phrase which is now gone out of use. 

105. Think of the world, — The only meaning that this 
can have seems to be, Think of the state in which the 
world is. 

105. 'From that it is disposed. — Here we have the omis- 
sion, not only of the relative, which can easily be dis- 
pensed with, but also of the preposition governing it, 
which is an essential part of the verb ; but, illegitimate 
as such syntax may be, it is common with our writers 
down to a date long subsequent to Shakespeare's age. 
Vid. 224. 

105. Therefore it is oneet. — It is (instead of 'tis) is the 
reading of the First Folio, which has been restored by 
Mr Knight. The excess here is of a syllable (the fore of 
therefore) not quite so manageable as usual, and it makes 
the verse move ponderously, if we must not say halt ; but 
perhaps such a prosody may be thought to be in accord- 
ance with the grave and severe spirit of the passage. 

105. With their likes. — We scarcely use this substan- 
tive now. 

105. Caesar doth hear me hard. — Evidently an old phrase 
for does not like me, bears me a grudge. It occurs again 
in 199, and a third time in 345. In 199, and there only, 
the editor of the Second Folio has changed hard into 
hatred, in which he has been followed by the Third and 
Fourth Folios, and also by Rowe, Pope, Hanmer, and 

I 2 



116 PHILOLOGICAL COMME^TAEY. [ACT I. 

even Capel. Mr Collier's MS. annotator restores the 
hard. It is remarkable that the expression, meeting us 
so often in this one Play, should be found nowhere else 
in Shakespeare. Nor have the commentators been able to 
refer to an instance of its occurrence in any other writer. 

105. He should not humour me. — The meaning seems 
to be, If I were in his position (a favourite with Caesar), 
and he in mine (disliked by Csesar), he should not cajole, 
or turn and wind, me, as I now do him. He and me are 
to be contrasted by the emphasis, in the same manner as 
I and he in the preceding line. This is Warburton's ex- 
planation ; whose remark, however, that the words convey 
a reflection on Brutus's ingratitude, seems unfounded. 
It is rather Brutus's simplicity that Cassius has in his 
mind. It would be satisfactory, however, if other ex- 
amples could be produced of the use of the verb to humour 
in the sense assumed. Johnson appears to have quite 
mistaken the meaning of the passage : he takes the he to 
be not Brutus, but Caesar ; and his interpretation is, " his 
(that is, Caesar's) love should not take hold of my affec- 
tion, so as to make me forget my principles." 

105. In several hands.—- Writings in several hands. 

105. Let CcBsar seat him sure. — Seat himself firmly (as 
on horseback). 



SCENE III.— The same. A Street. 

Thunder and Lightning. Enter, from opposite sides, Casca, with 
his sword drawn, and Ciceko. 

106. Cic. Good even, Casca ; Brought you Caesar home ? 
Why are you breathless ? and why stare you so ? 

107. Casca. Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth 
Shakes, like a thing unnrm ? O Cicero, 

I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds 
Have rived the knotty oaks ; and I have seen 
The ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam, 
To be exalted with the threatening clouds : 



SC. 3.] JULIUS C^SAK. 117 

But never till to-night, never till now, 
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire. 
Either there is a civil strife in heaven, 
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods, 
Incenses them to send destruction. 

108. Cic. Why, saw you anything more wonderful ? 

109. Casca. A common slave (you know him well by sight) 
Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn 

Like twenty torches joined; and yet his hand, 
Not sensible of fire, remained unscorched. 
Besides (I have not since put up my sword), 
Against the Capitol I met a lion, 
Who glared upon me, and went surly by, 
Without annoying me : And there were drawn 
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women, 
Transformed with their fear ; who swore they saw 
Men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets. 
And yesterday the bird of night did sit, 
Even at noon-day, upon the market-place, 
Hooting, and shrieking. When these prodigies 
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say, 
These are their reasons, — they are natural ; 
For, I believe, they are portentous things 
Unto the climate that they point upon. 

110. Cic. Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time: 
But men may construe things after their fashion, 
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves. 
Comes Caesar to the Capitol to-morrow ? 

Casca. He doth ; for he did bid Antonius 
Send word to you, he would be there to-morrow. 
112. Cic. Good night, then, Casca: this disturbed sky 
Is not to walk in. 

Casca. Farewell, Cicero. [Exit Cicero. 

Enter Cassius. 
Cos. Who's there ? 
Casca. A Boman. 
Cas. Casca, by your voice. 
117- Casca. Your ear is good. Cassius, what a night is this! 
Cas. A very pleasing night to honest men. 
Casca. Who ever knew the heavens menace so ? 
120. Cas. Those that have known the earth so full of faults. 
For my part, I have walked about the streets, 
Submitting me unto the perilous night; 



118 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

And, thus unbraced, Casca, as you see, 

Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone : 

And, when the cross blue lightning seemed to open 

The breast of heaven, I did present myself 

Even in the aim and very flash of it. 

Casca. But wherefore did you so much tempt the heavens ? 

It is the part of men to fear and tremble, 

When the most mighty gods, by tokens, send 

Such dreadful heralds to astonish us. 
122. Cas. You are dull, Casca; and those sparks of life 

That should be in a Roman you do want, 

Or else you use not : You look pale, and gaze, 

And put on fear, and cast yourself in wonder. 

To see the strange impatience of the heavens : 

But if you would consider the true cause, 

"Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts, 

Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind ; 

Why old men, fools, and children calculate ; 

Why all these things change from their ordinance, 

Their natures, and pre-formed faculties, 

To monstrous quality ; why, you shall find, 

That heaven hath infused them with these spirits, 

To make them instruments of fear and warning 

Unto some monstrous state. Now could I, Casca, 

Name to thee a man most like this dreadful night ; 

That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars, 

As doth the lion, in the Capitol : 

A man no mightier than thyself, or me, 

In personal action ; yet prodigious grown, 

And fearful, as these strange eruptions are. 

Casca. 'Tis Caesar that you mean: Is it not, Cassius ? 
124. Cas. Let it be who it is : for Eomans now 

Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors, 

But, woe the while ! our fathers* minds are dead, 

And we are governed with our mothers' spirits ; 

Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish. 

Casca. Indeed, they say, the senators to-morrow 

Mean to establish Caesar as a king : 

And he shall wear his crown by sea and land, 

In every place, save here in Italy. 
126. Cas. I know where I will wear this dagger, then ; 

Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius : 

Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong ; 



sc. 3.1 jrLirs oesab. 119 

Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat : 

Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, 

Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, 

Can be retentive to the strength of spirit ; 

But life, being weary of these worldly bars, 

Never lacks power to dismiss itself. 

If I know this, know all the world besides. 

That part of tyranny that I do bear 

I can shake off at pleasure. [Thunder still. 

127. Casca. So can I: 

So every bondman in his own hand bears 
The power to cancel his captivity. 

128. Cas. And why should Caesar be a tyrant, then r 
Poor man ! I know, he would not be a wolf, 

But that he sees the Romans are but sheep : 
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds. 
Those that with haste will make a mighty fire 
Begin it with weak straws : What trash is Borne. 
What rubbish, and what offal, when it serves 
For the base matter to illuminate 
So vile a thing as Caesar? But, 0, grief! 
Where hast thou led me ? I, perhaps, speak this 
Before a willing bondman : Then I know 
My answer must be made. But I am armed, 
And dangers are to me indifferent. 

1 29. Casca. You speak to Casca ; and to such a man, 
That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold, my hand : 

Be factious for redress of all these griefs ; 
And I will set this foot of mine as far 
As who goes farthest. 

130. Cas. There's a bargain made. 

Now know you, Casca, I have moved already 
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans 
To undergo, with me, an enterprise 
Of honourable- dangerous consequence ; 
And I do know by this they stay for me 
In Pompey's porch : for now, this fearful night 
There is no stir or walking in the streets ; 
And the complexion of the element 
In favour's like the work we have in hand, 
Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible. 
Enter ClNNA. 

Casca. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste. 

Cas. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait; 



120 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

He is a friend. — Cinna, where haste you so ? 

Cin. To find out you: Who's that? Metellus Cimber? 

134. Cas. No, it is Casca; one incorporate 

To our attempts. Am I not staid for, Cinna ? 

135. Cin, I am glad on't. What a fearful night is this ! 
There's two or three of us have seen strange sights. 

136. Cas. Am I not staid for ? Tell me. 

137. Cin. Yes, you are, — 
Cassius, if you could 

But win the nohle Brutus to our party ! 

138. Cas, Be you content. Good Cinna, take this paper, 
And look you lay it in the praetor's chair, 

Where Brutus may but find it ; and throw this 

In at his window : set this up with wax 

Upon old Brutus' statue : all this done, 

.Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us. 

Is Decius Brutus, and Trebonius, there ? 

139. Cin. All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone 
To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie, 
And so bestow these papers as you bade me. 

140. Cas. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre. [Exit Cinxa. 
Come, Casca, you and I will, yet, ere day, 

See Brutus at his house : three parts of him 
Is ours already ; and the man entire, 
Upon the next encounter, yields him ours. 

Casca. 0, he sits high in all the people's hearts ; 
And that, which would appear offence in us, 
His countenance, like richest alchymy, 
Will change to virtue, and to worthiness. 
142. Cas. Him, and his worth, and our great need of him, 
You have right well conceited. Let us go, 
For it is after midnight ; and, ere day, 
We will awake him, and be sure of him. [Exeunt, 

The heading of Scene III. in the old copies is only 
"Thunder and Lightning. Enter Casca, and Cicero." 

106. Brought you Ccesar home ? — Bring, which is now 
ordinarily restricted to the sense of carrying hither (so 
that we cannot say Bring there), was formerly used in 
that of carrying or conveying generally. To bring one on 
his way, for instance, was to accompany him even if he had 
been leaving the speaker. So " Brought you Caesar 
borne ?" is Did you go home with Caesar ? The word re- 



SC. 3.] JULIUS C2ESAR, 121 

tains its old sense in the expression To bring forth (fruit, 
or young), if not also in To bring down (a bird with a 
gun). To fetch, again, seems always to have meant more 
than to bring or to carry. "A horse cannot fetch, but 
only carry," says Launce in The Two Gent, of Ver. Hi. 1. 

107. All the sway of earth. — Sway, swing, swagger, are 
probably all of the same stock with weigh, and also with 
ivave. The sway of earth may be explained as the 
balanced swing of earth. 

107. Like a thing unfirm. — We have now lost the ad- 
jective unfirm, and we have appropriated infirm almost ex- 
clusively to the human body and mind, and their states and 
movements. For infirm generally we can only say not firm* 

107. Have rived. — "We have nearly lost this form ? 
which is the one Shakespeare uses in the only two pas- 
sages in which (if we may trust to Mrs Clarke) the past 
participle passive of the verb to rive is found in his works. 
The other is also in this Play : — " Brutus hath rived my 
heart," in 554. Milton, again, has our modern riven in 
the only passage of his poetry in which any part of the 
verb to rive occurs : — (P. L. vi. 449), " His riven arms 
to havoc hewn." 

107. To he exalted with. — That is, in order, or in the 
effort, to be raised to the same height with. 

107. A tempest dropping fire. — In the original text 
these three words are joined together by hyphens. 

107. A civil strife in heaven. — A strife in which one 
part of heaven wars with another. 

108. Any thing more wonderful. — That is, anything 
more that was wonderful. So in Coriolanus, iv. 6 : — 

" The slave's report is seconded, and more, 
More fearful, is delivered." 

So also in King John, iv. 2 : — 

" Some reasons of this double coronation 
I have possessed you with, and think them strong ; 
And more, more strong, .... 
I shall endue you with." 



122 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

109. You Jcnowhim icell hy sight. — Is it to be supposed 
that Casca really means to say that the common slave 
whom he chanced to meet was a particular individual 
well known to Cicero ? Of what importance could that 
circumstance be? Or for what purpose should Casca 
notice it, even supposing him to have been acquainted 
with the fact that Cicero knew the man well, and yet 
knew him only by sight ? It is impossible not to suspect 
some interpolation or corruption. Perhaps the true read- 
ing may be, "you knew him well by sight," meaning that 
any one would have known him at once to be but a 
common slave (notwithstanding the preternatural appear- 
ance, as if almost of something godlike, which his uplifted 
hand exhibited, burning but unhurt) . 

109. Besides (I have not since, etc. — In the Folios " I 
ha' not since." 

109. Against the Capitol.— Over against, opposite to. 

109. Who glared upon one. — In all the Folios the word 
is glazed. Pope first changed it to glared. Malone 
afterwards substituted gazed, partly on the strength of a 
passage in Stowe's Chronicle, — which gave Steevens an 
opportunity of maliciously rejoining, after quoting other 
instances of Shakespeare's use of glare ; — "I therefore 
continue to repair the poet with his own animated 
phraseology, rather than with the cold expression sug- 
gested by the narrative of Stowe ; who, having been a 
tailor, was undoubtedly equal to the task of mending 
Shakespeare's hose, but, on poetical emergencies, must 
not be allowed to patch his dialogue." Glared is also the 
correction of Mr Collier's MS. annotator. The only 
other instance known of the use of glazed, in apparently 
the sense which it would have here, is one produced by 
Boswell, from King James's translation of the Urania of 
Du Bartas: "I gave a lusty glaise." Boswell adds that 
"Du Bartas' s original affords us no assistance." 

109. Drawn upon a heap. — Gathered together in a heap, 



SC. 3.] JULIUS C-TSAS. 123 

or crowd. "Among this princely Leap," says Gloster in 
King Richard III., ii. 1. Heap was in common use in 
this sense throughout the seventeenth century. 

109. The bird of night.— The owl ; as the " bird of 
dawning" (the cock) in Hamlet, i. 1. 

109. Hooting and shrieking. — Holding is the word in 
the first three Folios, houting in the Fourth. 

109. Even at noonday, etc. — There may be a question 
as to the prosody of this line ; whether we are to count 
even a monosyllable and throw the accent upon dag, or ? 
making even a dissyllable and accenting noon, to reckon 
day supernumerary. 

109. These are their reasons, etc. — That such and such 
are their reasons. It is the same form of expression that 
we have afterwards in 147: — " "Would run to these and 
these extremities." But the present line has no claim to 
either a distinctive type or inverted commas. It is not as 
if it were " These are our reasons." Is it possible that 3Ir 
Collier can hold the new reading which he gives us in his 
one volume edition, on the authority of his MS. annotator, 
" These are their seasons" to be what Shakespeare really 
wrote ? This is their season might have been conceivable ; 
but who ever heard it remarked of any description of 
phenomena that these are their seasons? 

109. Unto the climate. — The region of the earth, ac- 
cording to the old geographical division of the globe into 
so many Climates, which had no reference, or only an 
accidental one, to differences of temperature. 

110. A strange-disposed time. — "We should now have 
to use the adverb in this kind of combination. If we 
still say strange-shaped, it is because there we seem to 
have a substantive for the adjective to qualify ; just as 
we have in higli-mind-ed, strong-mind-ed, able-bodi-ed, and 
other similar forms. In other cases, again, it is the ad- 
jective, and not the adverb, that enters into the compo- 
sition of the verb ; thus we say strange-looking, mad-look- 



124 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

ing, heavy -looking, etc., because the verb is to look strange, 
etc., not to look strangely (which has quite another mean- 
ing) . Foreign-built may be regarded as an irregular form- 
ation, occasioned probably by our having no such adverb 
asforeignly. Even in home-built, home-baked, home-brewed ' 
home-grown, home-made, etc., the adverb home has a mean- 
ing (at home) which it never has when standing alone. 

110. Clean from the purpose. — A use of clean (for com- 
pletely) now come to be accounted inelegant, though 
common in the translation of the Bible. "From the 
purpose" is away from the purpose. 

112. The metre of this speech stands, or rather stum- 
bles, thus in the original edition : — 

" Good-night then, Caska : 
This disturbed Skie is not to walke in." 

117. Your ear is good, etc. — The old copies have 
""What night is this?" But, notwithstanding the super- 
numerary short syllable, the only possible reading seems 
to be the one which I have given ; " Cassius, what a night 
is this !••' The a is plainly indispensable ; for surely Casca 
cannot be supposed to ask what day of the month it is. 
What he says can only be understood as an exclamation, 
similar to that of China, in 135 : " "What a fearful night 
is this!" As for the slight irregularity in the prosody, 
it is of perpetual occurrence. Thus, only thirty lines 
lower down (in 122) we have an instance of it produced 
exactly as here : — " Name to thee a man most like this 
dreadful night." And so again in 155: — "Are then in 
council ; and the state of a man." 

120. So full of faults. — The word fault, formerly, 
though often signifying no more than it now does, carried 
sometimes (as here) a much greater weight of meaning 
than we now attach to it. Conf 143. 

120. The thunder-stone. — The thunder-stone is the 
imaginary product of the thunder, which the ancients 
called Brontia, mentioned by Pliny (JV". H. xxxvii. 10) as 



i 



SC. 3,] JULIUS C.ESAE. 125 

a species of gem, and as that "which, falling with the 
lightning, does the mischief. It is the fossil commonly 
called the Belemnite, or Finger-stone, and now known to 
be a shell. We still talk of the thunder-holt, which, how- 
ever, is commonly confounded with the lightning. The 
thunder-stone vr&s held to be quite distinct from the light- 
ning, as may be seen from the song of Gruiderius and 
Arviragus in Cymbeline, iv. 2. 

i( Guid. Fear no more the lightning-flash. 
Arv. Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone." 

It is also alluded to in Othello, v. 2 : — 

" Are there no stones in heaven, 
But what serve for the thunder ? " 

122. You are dull, etc. — The commencement of this 
speech is a brill 'ant specimen of the blank verse of the 
original edition : — 

" You are dull, Caska : 
And those sparkes of Life, that should be in a Eonian, 
You doe want, or else you use not. 
You looke pale, and gaze, and put on feare, 
And cast your selfe in wonder, 
To see," etc. 

122. Cast yourself in wonder. — Does this mean throw 
yourself into a paroxysm of wonder ? Or may cast your- 
self mean cast your self or your mind, about, as in idle 
conjecture ? The Commentators are mute. Shakespeare 
sometimes has in where we should now use into. In an 
earlier stage of the language, the distinction now estab- 
lished between in and into was constantly disregarded; 
and in some idiomatic expressions, the radical fibres of a 
national speech, we still have in used to express what is 
commonly and regularly expressed by into. To fall in 
love is a familiar example. Perhaps we continue to say 
in love as marking more forcibly the opposition to what 
Julia in the concluding line of The Two Gentlemen of 



126 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

Verona calls out of love. The expression cast yourself in 
ivonder seems to be most closely paralleled by another in 
King Richard III., i. 3 : — " Clarence, whom I, indeed, 
have cast in darkness," as it stands in the First Polio, 
although the preceding Quartos (of which there were five, 
1597, 1598, 1602, 1612 or 1613, 1622) have all "laid in 
darkness." We have another instance of Shakespeare's 
use of in where we should now say into in the familiar 
lines in The Merchant of Venice, v. 1 ; — 

" How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank ! 
Here we will sit, and let the sounds of music 
Creep in our ears." 

122. Why old men, etc. — Blackstone's novel pointing of 
this passage is ingenious : — " "Why old men fools " (i. e. 
why we have all these fires, etc., why we have old men 
fools). But the amendment is hardly required; or, at 
any rate, it would not go far to give us a perfectly satis- 
factory text. Nor does there seem to be any necessity 
for assigning to calculate the singular sense of prophesy 
(which the expression adduced by Johnson, to calculate a 
nativity, is altogether insufficient to authorize). There 
is probably some corruption ; but the present line may 
be very well understood as meaning merely, why not only 
old men, but even fools and children, speculate upon the 
future; or, still more simply, why all persons, old and 
young, and the foolish as well as the wise, take part in 
such speculating and prognosticating. Shakespeare may 
have been so far from thinking, with Blackstone, that it 
was something unnatural and prodigious for old men ever 
to be fools, that he has even designed to classify them 
with foolish persons generally, and with children, as 
specially disqualified for looking with any very deep in- 
sight into the future. And so doubtless they are apt to 
be, when very old. 

122. Unto some monstrous state, — That is, I suppose, 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CJSSAE. 127 

some monstrous or unnatural state of things (not some 
overgrown commonwealth) . 

122. And roars, etc. — That is, roars in the Capitol as 
doth the lion. Many readers, I believe, go away with 
the notion that Caesar is here compared by Cassius to 
some live lion that was kept in the Capitol. Or perhaps 
it may be sometimes imagined that he alludes to the same 
lion which Casca (though not in his hearing) has just 
been telling Cicero that he had met " against the Capitol." 
— The Second and two following Folios have tears for 
roars. Mr Collier, however, prints roars, although it is 
not stated that that word is restored by his MS. anno- 
tator. 

122. N'o mightier tlian thyself, or one. — Of course, in 
strict grammar it should be than I. But the personal 
pronouns must be held to be. in some measure, emanci- 
pated from the dominion or tyranny of syntax. "Who 
would rectify even Shelley's bold 

"lest there be 
Xo solace left for thou and me ? " 

The grammatical law has so slight a hold that a mere 
point of euphony is deemed sufficient to justify the neglect 
of it. 

As we have me for I in the present passage, we have / 
for me in Antonio's " All debts are cleared between you 
and I" {Merchant of Venice, Hi. 2). Other examples of 
the same irregularity are the following : — 

"Which none but Heaven, and you and I, shall hear." 

King John, i. 1. 
11 "Which none may hear but she and thou,'* 

Coleridge, Day Dream. 

In both these passages hut can only be the preposition. 
So where Corin, in his conversation with Touchstone, in 
As You Like It, Hi. 2, says, " You told me you salute 
not at the court but you hiss your hands," he does not 



128 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

mean that there is no saluting at court, only kissing of 
hands, but that people never salute without kissing hands. 
There ought to be no comma after court. The form of 
phrase is the same that we have afterwards in Hi. 5 : — 

" The common executioner . . . 
Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck 
But first begs pardon ; " — ■ 

that is, without first asking pardon. 

124. Let it he who it is. — Not who it may he ; Cassius, 
in his present mood, is above that subterfuge. While he 
abstains from pronouncing the name, he will not allow it 
to be supposed that there is any doubt about the actual 
existence of the man he has been describing. 

124. Thews and limhs. — The common signification of 
the word thews in our old writers is manners, or qualities 
of mind and disposition. This is the sense in which it 4s 
always used both by Chaucer and by Spenser. It is also 
the only sense of the Original English theaw. And even 
at a comparatively late date any other sense seems to 
have been felt to be strange. The editors of the Third 
and Fourth Folios (1664 and 1685) substitute sinews in 
the present passage. Pope, on the other hand, retaining, 
or restoring, thews, explains it as meaning here manners or 
capacities. But, even if the true meaning of the word 
were disputable in this passage considered by itself, the 
other instances of its use by Shakespeare would clearly 
show what sense he attached to it. They are only two. 
" Care I," says Falstaff, in the Second Part of King 
Henry IV., Hi. 2, "for the limb, the thews, the stature, 
bulk, and big assemblance of a man ? Give me the spirit, 
Master Shallow." And exactly in the same way it is 
used by Laertes in Hamlet, i. 3 :— 

" For nature, crescent, does not grow alone 
In thews and bulk ; but, as this temple waxes, 
The inward service of the mind and soul 
Grows wide withal." 



sc. 3.] julius CjESAe. 129 

In all the three passages by thews Shakespeare means 
unquestionably brawn, nerves, muscular vigour. And to 
this sense, and this only, the word has now settled down ; 
the other sense, which was formerly so familiar in our 
literature, is quite gone out and forgotten. Shakespeare's 
use of it had probably been always common in the popular 
language. There appear in fact to have been two Ori- 
ginal English words, iheaw and theow, the latter the ori- 
ginal of our modern thigh and also of Shakespeare's thew. 
It is preserved, too, in the Scottish thowless, meaning 
feeble or sinewless. Only one or two instances, however, 
have been discovered of the word being used by any other 
English writer before Shakespeare in his sense of it. One 
is given* by Nares from G-eorge Turbervile, who, in his 
translation of Ovid's Epistles, first printed in 1567, has 
" the thews of Helen's passing [that is, surpassing] form." 
In the earlier version of LayamorCs Brut, also, which 
belongs to the end of the twelfth century, we have in one 
place (verse 6361), " Monnene strengest of maine and of 
theawe of alle thissere theode " (of men strongest of main, 
or strength, and of sinew, of all this land). But Sir 
Erederic Madden remarks (III. 471) : — " This is the only 
instance in the poem of the word being applied to bodily 
qualities, nor has any other passage of an earlier date 
than the sixteenth century been found in which it is so 
used." It may be conjectured that it had only been a 
provincial word in this sense, till Shakespeare adopted it. 

124. But, woe the while ! — This, I believe, is commonly 
understood to mean, alas for the present time ; but may 
not the meaning, here at least, rather be, alas for what 
hath come to pass in the mean while, or in the interval 
that has elapsed since the better days of our heroic an- 
cestors ? 

124. And we are governed with. — We now commonly 
employ by to denote agency, and with where there is only 
instrumentality ; but that distinction was not formerly so 



130 PHILOLOQICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

fully established, and with was used more frequently than 
it is with us. Shakespeare even has {Rich. II, Hi. 3) 
"I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief." 

126. / hnoiv where I will wear this dagger, then. — The 
true meaning of this line is ruined by its being printed, 
as it is in the old, and also in most of the modern editions, 
without the comma. Cassius does not intend to be under- 
stood as intimating that he is prepared to plunge his 
dagger into his heart at that time, but in that case. 

126. Can be retentive to. — Can retain or confine the 
spirit. 

126. If I hnow this, etc. — The logical connexion of "If 
I know this" is with " That part of tyranny," etc. ; but 
there is also a rhetorical connexion with " Know all the 
world besides." As if he had said, " Knowing this, I can 
shake off, etc. ; and, I knowing this, let all others too 
know and be aware that I can," etc. 

127. The power to cancel, etc. — Here, it will be observed, 
we hove power reduced to a monosyllable, although it had 
been employed as a dissyllable only five lines before, 
" Never lacks power," etc. 

128. He ivere no lion, etc, — His imagination is still 
filled with the image by which he has already pictured 
the tyranny of the Dictator ; — " roars, as doth the lion, 
in the Capitol."— Kind, a she stag, is correctly formed 
from the Original English hinde, of the same meaning ; 
our other hind, a peasant, was originally hine and hina, 
and has taken the d only for the sake of a fuller or firmer 
enunciation. It may be noted, however, that, although 
there is a natural tendency in certain syllables to seek 
this addition of breadth or strength, it is most apt to 
operate when it is aided, as here, by the existence of some 
other word or form to which the d properly belongs. 
Thus, soun (from sonner and sono) has probably been the 
more easily converted into sound from having become 
confounded in the popular ear and understanding with 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CJESA.R. 131 

the adjective sound and the verb to sound, meaning to 
search; and such obsolete or dialectic forms as drownd 
and sivound (for drown and swoon) mar be supposed to 
have been the more readily produced through the mis- 
leading influence "of the parts of the verb which actually 
and properly end in d or ed. As we have confounded the 
old hinde and hine, so vre have also the Original English 
herd, or heord, meaning a flock or crowd (the modern 
G-erman heerde), with hyrd, meaning a keeper or tender 
(the modern German hirt) ; our one form for both being 
now herd. 

128. My answer must he made. — I must answer for what 
I have said. 

129. To such a man, That is, etc. — Yid. 57. — To fleer 
(or flear, as is the old spelling) is to mock, or laugh at. 
The word appears to have come to us from the Norse or 
Scandinavian branch of the Gothic, — one of the roots of 
our English tongue which recent philology has almost 
abjured, although, besides all else, we owe to it even forms 
of such perpetual occurrence as the are of the substantive 
verb and the ordinary sign of our modern genitive (for 
such a use of the preposition of, common to us with the 
Swedish, is unknown to the classical English of the times 
before the Gorman Conquest, although we have it in full 
activity, probably adopted from the popular speech of the 
northern counties, in the written language of the twelfth 
century) . 

129. Sold, my hand. — That is, Have, receive, take hold 
(of it) ; there is my hand, The comma is distinctly 
marked in the early editions. 

129. Be factious for redress of all these griefs. — Here 
factious seems to mean nothing more than active or urgent, 
although everywhere else, I believe, in Shakespeare the 
word is used in the same disreputable sense which it lias 
at present. Griefs (the form still used in the French 
language, and retained in our own with brother meaning) 

K 2 



132 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

is his by far more common word for what we now call 
grievances, although he has that form too occasionally 
(which Milton nowhere employs). Vid. 436. 

130. To undergo, with me, an enterprise. — We should 
now rather say to undertake where there is anything to 
be done. 

130. Of honourable-dangerous. — These two words were 
probably intended to make a compound adjective, although 
the hyphen with which they are connected by most of the 
modern editors is not in the oldest printed text. The 
language does not now, at least in serious composition, 
indulge in compounds of this description. Shakespeare, 
however, has apparently several such. Thus : — 

"More active-valiant, or more valiant-young." 

1 Hen. IV.) v. 1. 

"But pardon me, I am too sudden-bold." 

Love's Lab. Lost, ii. 1. 

"More fertile-fresh than all the field to see." 

Mer. W. of Wind., v. 5. 

" So full of shapes is fancy, 
That it alone is high-fantastical." — 

Twelfth Night, i. 1. 

130. By this they stay for me, — That is, by this time. 
And it is a mode of expression which, like so many others 
which the language once possessed, we have now lost. 
Tet we still say, in the same sense, ere this, before this, 
after this, the preposition in these phrases being felt to 
be suggestive of the notion of time in a way that by is not. 

130. There is no . . . walking. — In another connexion 
this might mean, that there was no possibility of walking ; 
but here the meaning apparently is that there was no 
walking going on. 

130. The complexion of the element. — That is, of the 
heaven, of the sky. North, in his Plutarch, speaks of 
"the fires in the element." The word in this sense was 
much in favour with the fine writers or talkers of Shake- 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CAESAR. 133 

speare's day. He has a hit at the affectation in his Twelfth 
Night, Hi. 1, where the Clown, conversing with Viola, 
says, " Who you are, and what you would, are out of my 
welkin : I might say, element : but the word is overworn." 
Of course, welkin is, and is intended to be, far more 
absurd. Yet we have element for the sky or the air in 
other passages besides the present. Thus : — 

" The element itself, .... 
Shall not behold her face at ample view." 

Twelfth Night, i. 1. 

" I, in the clear sky of fame, o'ershine you as much as the 
full moon doth the cinders of the element, which show 
like pins' heads to her" (Falstaff, in 2 Hen. IV., iv. 3). 

It is curious to find writers of the present day who are 
scrupulous about the more delicate proprieties of expres- 
sion still echoing Shakespeare's dissatisfaction : " The ter- 
ritorial element, to use that favourite word," says Hallam, 
Mid. Ages, I. 297 (edit, of 1855), probably without any 
thought of the remark of the all-observing dramatist two 
centuries and a half before. 

130. In favour's like the work. — The reading in all the 
Folios is "Is favors" (or "favours "for the Third and 
Fourth). The present reading, which is that generally 
adopted, was first proposed by Johnson ; and it has the 
support, it seems, of Mr Collier's MS. annotator. Favour, 
as we have seen (vid. 54), means aspect, appearance, 
features. Another emendation that has been proposed 
(by Steevens) is "Is favoured." But to say that the 
complexion of a thing is either featured like, or in feature 
like, to something else is very like a tautology. I should 
be strongly inclined to adopt Eeed's ingenious conjecture, 
" Is feverous," which he supports by quoting from Mac- 
beth, ii. 3, " Some say the earth Was feverous and did 
shake." So also in Coriolanus, i. 4 ; — " Thou mad'st thine 
enemies shake, as if the world "Were feverous and did 
tremble." Feverous is exactly the sort of word that, if 



134 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT I. 

not very distinctly written, would be apt to puzzle and 
be mistaken by a compositor. It may perhaps count, 
too, for something, though not very much, against both 
" favour's like " and " favoured like " that a very decided 
comma separates the two words in the original edition. 

134. One incorporate To our attempts. — One of our body, 
one united with us in our enterprise. The expression 
has probably no more emphatic import. 

135. There's two or three. — The contraction there's is 
still used indifferently with a singular or a plural ; though 
there is scarcely would be. 

136. Am I not staid for ? — This is the original reading, 
which has been restored by Mr Knight. The common 
modern reading is, " Am I not staid for, Cinna ? " the last 
word being inserted (and that without notice, which is 
unpardonable) only to satisfy the supposed demands of 
the prosody. 

137. This speech stands thus in the First Eolio : — 

"Yes, you are. Cassius, 
If you could but winne the Noble Brutus 
To our party — ." 

The common metrical arrangement is : — 

"Yes, 
You are. Cassius, if you could but win 
The noble Brutus to our party." 

ISo person either having or believing himself to have a 
true feeling of the Shakespearian rhythm can believe this 
to be right. Nor am I better satisfied with Mr Knight's 
distribution of the lines, although it is adopted by Mr 
Collier:— 

11 Yes, you are. 
0, Cassius, if you could but win the noble Brutus, 
To our party; " 

which gives us an extended line equally unmusical and 
undignified whether read rapidly or slowly, followed (to 
make matters worse which were bad enough already) by 



sc. 3.] jULrus cesar. 135 

what could scarcely make the commencement of any kind 
of line. I cannot doubt that, whatever we are to do with 
" Yes, you are," — whether we make these comparatively 
unimportant words the completion of the line of which 
Cassius's question forms the beginning, or take them 
along with what follows, which would give us a line want- 
ing only the first syllable (and deriving, perhaps, from 
that mutilation an abruptness suitable to the occasion) — 
the close of the rhythmic flow must be as I have given 
it:— 

" Cassius, if you could 
But win the noble Brutus to our party." 

138. Where Brutus may hut find it. — If hut be the true 
word (and be not a misprint for best), the meaning must 
be, Be sure you lay it in the praetor's chair, only taking 
care to place it so that Brutus may be sure to find it. 

138. Upon old Brutus' statue. — Lucius Brutus, who 
expelled the Tarquins, the reputed ancestor of Marcus 
Lucius Brutus ; also alluded to in 56, " There was a 
Brutus once," etc. 

139. I will hie. — To hie (meaning to hasten) is used 
reflectively, as well as intransitively, but not otherwise as 
an active verb. Its root appears to be the Original Eng- 
lish hyge, meaning mind, study, earnest application; 
whence the various verbal forms hyggan, hygian, Megan, 
higgan, higian, Jiogian, hugian, and perhaps others. Hug 
is probably another modern derivative from the same root. 

139. And so bestow these papers. — This use of bestow 
(for to place, or dispose of) is now gone out; though 
something of it still remains in stow. 

140. JPompey's theatre. — The same famous structure of 
Pompey's, opened with shows and games of unparalleled 
cost and magnificence some ten or twelve years before the 
present date, which has been alluded to in 130 and 138. 

142. You have right well conceited. — To conceit is an- 



136 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

other form of our still familiar to conceive. And the noun 
conceit, which survives with a limited meaning (the con- 
ception of a man by himself, which is so apt to be one of 
over-estimation), is also frequent in Shakespeare with the 
sense, nearly, of what we now call conception, in general. 
So in 349. Sometimes it is used in a sense which might 
almost be said to be the opposite of what it now means ; 
as when Juliet (in Ro?neo and Juliet, ii. 5) employs it as 
the term to denote her all-absorbing affection for Eomeo : — 

" Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, 
Brags of his substance, not of ornament : 
They are but beggars that can count their worth ; 
But my true love is grown to such excess, 
I cannot sum the sum of half my wealth. " 

Or as when Gratiano, in The Merchant of Venice, i. 1, 
speaks of a sort of men who 

"do a wilful stillness entertain, 
With purpose to be dressed in an opinion 
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit" — 

that is, deep thought. 

So, again, when Rosaline, in Love's Labour's Lost, ii. 1, 
speaking of Biron, describes his " fair tongue " as " con- 
ceit's expositor," all that she means is that speech is the 
expounder of thought. The scriptural expression, still in 
familiar use, "wise in his own conceit" means merely 
wise in his own thought, or in his own eyes, as we are 
told in the margin the Hebrew literally signifies. In the 
New Testament, where we have "in their own conceits," 
the Greek is simply 7rap' iavrolg (in or with themselves). 



ACT II. 

SCENE I. — The same. Brutus* S Orchard. 
Enter Brutus. 
143. Bru. What, Lucius! ho! 

I cannot, by the progress of the stars, 



SC. 1.] JULIUS OZESAR. 137 

Give guess how near to day. — Lucius, I say !— 
I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly. — ■ 
When, Lucius ? when ? Awake, I say : What, Lucius ! 

Enter Lucius. 
Luc. Called you, my Lord r 
Bru. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius : 
When it is lighted, come and call me here. 

Luc. I will, my lord. [Exit. 

147. Bru. It must he by his death : and, for my part, 
I know no personal cause to spurn at him, 

But for the general. He would be crowned : — 

How that might change his nature, there's the question. 

It is the bright day that brings forth the adder ; 

And that craves wary walking. Crown him ? — That ; — 

And then, I grant, we put a sting in him, 

That at his will he may do danger with. 

The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins 

Bemorse from power ; and, to speak truth of Csesar, 

I have not known when his affections swayed 

More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof, 

That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, 

Whereto the climber upward turns his face : 

But when he once attains the upmost round, 

He then unto the ladder turns his back, 

Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees 

By which he did ascend. So Caesar may. 

Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel 

Will bear no colour for the thing he is, 

Fashion it thus ; that what he is, augmented, 

Would run to these and these extremities : 

And therefore think him as a serpent's egg. 

Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous ; 

And kill him in the shell. 

Re-enter Lucius. 

148. Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, Sir. 
Searching the window for a flint, I found 
This paper, thus sealed up ; and, I am sure, 

It did not lie there when I went to bed. [ Gives him the letter. 

149. Bru. Get you to bed again; it is not day. 
Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides of March ? 

Luc. I know not, Sir. 

Bru. Look in the calendar, and bring me word. 



138 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEKTAJRY. [ACT T 

Luc. I will, Sir. [Exit. 

153. Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, 
Give so much light, that I may read by them. 

[ Opens the letter, and reads. 
"Brutus, thou sleep* st; awake, and see thyself. 

Shall Rome, §c. Speak, strike, redress.'" 

Brutus, thou sleep'- 'st ; awake. 

Such instigations have been often dropped 

Where I have took them up. 

Shall Rome, #<?. Thus must I piece it out : — 

Shall Rome stand under one man's awe ? What ! Rome ? 

My ancestors did from the streets of Rome 

The Tarquin drive, when he was called a king. 

Speak, strike, redress! 

Am I entreated 

To speak, and strike ? Rome ! I make thee promise, 

If the redress will follow, thou receivest 

Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus. 

Re-enter Lucius. 

154. Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen days. [Knock within, 

155. Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate ; somebody knocks. 

[Exit Lucius. 

Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar, 
I have not slept. 

Between the acting of a dreadful thing 
And the first motion, all the interim is 
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream : 
The genius, and the mortal instruments, 
Are then in council ; and the state of a man, 
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then 
The nature of an insurrection. 

Re-enter Lucius. 

156. Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius at the door, 
Who doth desire to see you. 

Bru. Is he alone ? 
158. Luc. No, Sir, there are moe with him. 
Bru. Do you know them ? 

160. Luc. No, Sir; their hats are pluckt about their ears, 
And half their faces buried in their cloaks, 

That by no means I may discover them 
By any mark of favour. 

161. Bru, Let 'em enter. [Exit Lucius 



SC. 1.] JULIUS CAESAR. 139 

They are the faction. Conspiracy ! 

Sham'st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night, 

When evils are most free ! 0, then, by day, 

Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough 

To mask thy monstrous visage ? Seek none, Conspiracy ; 

Hide it in smiles, and affability : 

For, if thou path, thy native semblance on, 

Not Erebus itself were dim enough 

To hide thee from prevention. 

Enter Cassius, Casca, Decius, Cistna, Metellus Cimber, 
and Teebonius. 

162. Cas. I think we are too bold upon your rest : 
Good morrow, Brutus ; Do we trouble you ? 

Bru. I have been up this hour ; awake, all night. 
Know I these men that come along with you ? 

Cas. Yes, every man of them ; and no man here 
But honours you ; and every one doth wish 
You had but that opinion of yourself 
Which every noble Roman bears of you. 
This is Trebonius. 

Bru. He is welcome hither. 

Cas. This, Decius Brutus. f 

Bru. He is welcome too. 
168. Cas. This, Casca; this, Cinna ; and this, Metellus Cimber. 

Bru. They are all welcome. 
What watchful cares do interpose themselves 
Betwixt your eyes and night ? 

Cas. Shall I entreat a word ? [They whisper. 

Dec. Here lies the east : Doth not the day break here ? 

Casca. No. 

173. Cin. 0, pardon, Sir, it doth; and yon grey lines, 
That fret the clouds, are messengers of day. 

174. Casca. You shall confess, that you are both deceived. 
Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises ; 

Which is a great way growing on the south, 
Weighing the youthful season of the year. 
Some two months hence, up higher toward the north 
He first presents his fire ; and the high east 
Stands, as the Capitol, directly here. 

175. Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one. 
Cas. And let us swear our resolution. 

177. Bru. No, not an oath : If not the face of men, 



140 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse, — 
If these be motives weak, break off betimes, 
And every man hence to his idle bed ; 
So let high- sighted tyranny range on, 
Till each man drop by lottery. But if these, 
As I am sure they do, bear fire enough 
To kindle cowards, and to steel with valour 
The melting spirits of women ; then, countrymen, 
What need we any spur, but our own cause, 
To prick us to redress ? what other bond, 
Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word, 
And will not palter ? And what other oath, 
Than honesty to honesty engaged 
That this shall be, or we will fall for it ? 
Swear priests, and cowards, and men cautelous, 
Old feeble carrions, and such suffering souls 
That welcome wrongs ; unto bad causes swear 
Such creatures as men doubt : but do not stain 
The even virtue of our enterprise, 
Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits, 
To think that or our cause or our performance 
Did need an oath ; when every drop of blood, 
That every Eoman bears, and nobly bears, 
Is guilty of a several bastardy, 
If he do break the smallest particle 
Of any promise that hath passed from him. 
178. Cas. But what of Cicero ? Shall we sound him ? 
I think, he will stand very strong with us. 

Casca. Let us not leave him out. 

Cin. No, by no means. 

181. Met. let us have him; for his silver hairs 
Will purchase us a good opinion, 

And buy men's voices to commend our deeds : 
It shall be said, his judgment ruled our hands ; 
Our youths, and wildness; shall no whit appear, 
But all be buried in his gravity. 

182. Bru. 0, name him not; let us not break with him; 
For he will never follow anything 

That other men begin. 
Cas. Then leave him out. 
Casca. Indeed, he is not fit. 

Dec. Shall no man else be touched but only Caesar ? 
186. Cas. Decius, well urged: — I think it is not meet, 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^SAE. 141 

Mark Antony, so well beloved of Caesar, 
Should outlive Caesar : We shall find of him 
A shrewd contriver ; and, you know, his means, 
If he improve them, may well stretch so far 
As to annoy us all : which to prevent, 
Let Antony and Caesar fall together. 

187. Bru. Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassias, 
To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs, 

Like wrath in death, and envy afterwards : 
For Antony is but a limb of Caesar. 
Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius. 
We ail stand up against the spirit of Caesar ; 
And in the spirit of men there is no blood : 
0, that we then could come by Caesar's spirit, 
And not dismember Caesar ! But, alas, 
Caesar must bleed for it ! And, gentle friends, 
Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully ; 
Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods, 
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds : 
And let our hearts, as subtle masters do, 
Stir up their servants to an act of rage, 
And after seem to chide ' em. This shall mark 
Our purpose necessary, and not envious : 
Which so appearing to the common eyes, 
We shall be called purgers, not murderers. 
And for Mark Antony, think not of him ; 
For he can do no more than Caesar's arm 
When Caesar's head is off. 

188. Cas. Tet I do fear him . 

For in the ingrafted love he bears to Caesar,- 

189. Bru. Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him : 
If he love Caesar, all that he can do 

Is to himself, take thought, and die for Caesar : 
And that were much he should ; for he is given 
To sports, to wildness, and much company. 

190. Treb. There is no fear in him; let him not die ; 

For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter. [Clock strikes , 

Bru. Peace, count the clock. 
192. Cas. The clock hath stricken three. 

Treb. 'Tis time to part. 
194. Cas. But it is doubtful yet 

Whether Caesar will come forth to-day or no : 
For he is superstitious grown of late ; 



142 PHILOLOQICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

Quite from the main opinion lie held once 

Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies ; 

It may be, these apparent prodigies, 

The unaccustomed terror of this night, 

And the persuasion of his augurers, 

May hold him from the Capitol to-day. 
195. Dec. Never fear that : If he be so resolved, 

I can o'ersway him : for he loves to hear 

That unicorns may be betrayed with trees, 

And bears with glasses, elephants with holes, 

Lions with toils, and men with flatterers ; 

But, when I tell him he hates flatterers, 

He says he does ; being then most flattered. 

Let me work : 

For I can give his humour the true bent ; 

And I will bring him to the Capitol. 

Cas. Nay, we will all of us be there to fetch him. 
197. Bru. By the eighth hour : Is that the uttermost ? 
Cin. Be that the uttermost, and fail not then. 

199. Met. Caius Ligarius doth bear Csesar hard, 
Who rated him for speaking well of Pompey ; 
I wonder none of you have thought of him. 

200. Bru. Now, good Metellus, go along by him : 
He loves me well, and I have given him reasons ; 
Send him but hither, and I'll fashion him. 

201. Cas. The morning comes upon us : "We'll leave you, Brutus : — 
And, friends, disperse yourselves : but all remember 

What you have said, and show yourselves true Romans. 

202. Bru. Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily ; 
Let not our looks put on our purposes : 

But bear it as our Roman actors do, 

"With untired spirits, and formal constancy : 

And so, good morrow to you every one. [Exeunt all but Betjtus. 

Boy ! Lucius ! — Fast asleep ? It is no matter ; 

Enjoy the heavy honey-dew of slumber : 

Thou hast no figures, nor no fantasies, 

Which busy care draws in the brains of men ; 

Therefore thou sleep' st so sound. 

Enter Portia. 
For. Brutus, my lord ! 

Bru. Portia, what mean you ? Wherefore rise you now ? 
It is not for your health, thus to commit 



SC. 1.] JCLITJS CJESAE. 143 

Your weak condition to the raw-cold morning. 
205. Por. Xor for yours neither. You've ungently, Brutus, 

Stole from my bed : And yesternight, at supper, 

You suddenly arose, and walked about, 

Musing, and sighing, with your arms across : 

And, when I asked you what the matter was, 

You stared upon me with ungentle looks ; 

I urged you further ; then you scratched your head, 

And too impatiently stamped with your foot : 

Yet I insisted, yet you answered not ; 

But, with an angry wafture of your hand. 

Gave sign for me to leave you : So I did ; 

Fearing to strengthen that impatience, 

"Which seemed too much enkindled; and, withal, 

Hoping it was but an effect of humour, 

Which sometime hath his hour with every man. 

It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep ; 

And, could it work so much upon your shape, 

As it hath much prevailed on your condition, 
I should not know you, Brutus. Dear my lord, 

Make me acquainted with your cause of grief. 
Bru. I am not well in health, and that is all. 
Por. Brutus is wise, and, were he not in health, 

He would embrace the means to come by it. 
Bru. Whiy, so I do. — Good Portia, go to bed. 
209. Por. Is Brutus sick ? and is it physical 
To walk unbraced, and suck up the humours 
Of the dank morning ? "What, is Brutus sick ; 
And will he steal out of his wholesome bed, 
To dare the vile contagion of the night ? 
And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air 
To add unto his sickness ? No, my Brutus ; 
You have some sick offence within your mind, 
Which, by the right and virtue of my place, 
I ought to know of : And, upon my knees, 
I charm you, by my once commended beauty, 
By all your vows of love, and that great vow, 
Which did incorporate and make us one, 
That you unfold to me, yourself, your half, 
Why you are heavy ; and what men to-night 
Have had resort to you : for here have been 
Some six or seven, who did hide their faces 
Even from darkness. 



14i PHILOLOGICAL COMlTE^TAItr. [ACT II. 

Bru. Kneel not, gentle Portia. 
211. Por. I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus. 
Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus, 
Is it excepted, I should know no secrets 
That appertain to you? Am I yourself 
But, as it were, in sort, or limitation ; 
To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed, 
And talk to you sometimes ? Dwell I but in the suburbs 
Of your good pleasure ? If it be no more, 
Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife. 

Bru. You are my true and honourable wife ; 
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops 
That visit my sad heart. 

213. Por. If this were true, then should I know this secret. 
I grant, I am a woman ; but, withal, 

A woman that lord Brutus took to wife : 

I grant, I am a woman ; but, withal, 

A woman well reputed; Cato's daughter. 

Think you, I am no stronger than my sex, 

Being so fathered, and so husbanded ? 

Tell me your counsels, I will not disclose 'em: 

I have made strong proof of my constancy, 

Giving myself a voluntary wound 

Here, in the thigh : Can I bear that with patience, 

And not my husband's secrets ? 

214. Bru. ye gods, 

Bender me worthy of this noble wife! [Knocking within- 

Hark, hark ! one knocks : Portia, go in a while ; 

And by and by thy bosom shall partake 

The secrets of my heart. 

All my engagements I will construe to thee, 

All the charactery of my sad brows :— 

Leave me with haste. [Exit Portia. 

Enter Lucius and Ligarius. 

Lucius, who's that, knocks ? 

Luc. Here is a sick man, that would speak with you. 

Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of. — 
Boy, stand aside. — Caius Ligarius ! how ? 

217. Lig, Vouchsafe good-morrow from a feeble tongue. 

218. Bru. 0, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius, 
To wear a kerchief ? Would you were not sick ! 

Lig. I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^SAK. 145 

Any exploit worthy the name of honour. 

Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius, 
Had you a healthful ear to hear of it. 
221. Lig. By all the gods that Romans bow before 
I here discard my sickness. Soul of Eome ! 
Brave son, derived from honourable loins! 
Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjured up 
My mortified spirit, Now bid me run, 
And I will strive with things impossible , 
Yea, get the better of them. What's to do ? 

Bru. A piece of work that will make sick men whole. 

Lig. But are not some whole, that we must make sick r 

224. Bru. That must we also. What it is, my Caius, 
I shall unfold to thee, as we are going 

To whom it must be done. 

225. Lig. Set on your foot ; 

And, with a heart new-fired, I follow you, 
To do I know not what : but it sufficeth, 
That Brutus leads me on. 
Bru. Follow me then. [Exeunt. 

Scene L — The heading here in the Folios (in which 
there is no division into Scenes), is merely " Enter Brutus 
in his Orchard." Assuming that Brutus was probably 
not possessed of what we now call distinctively an orchard 
(which may have been the case), the modern editors of 
the earlier part of the last century took upon them to 
change Orchard into Garden. But this is to carry the 
work of rectification (even if we should admit it to be 
such) beyond what is warrantable. To deprive Brutus 
in this way of his orchard was to mutilate or alter 
Shakespeare's conception. It is probable that the words 
Orchard and Garden were commonly understood in the 
early part of the seventeenth century in the senses which 
they now bear ; but there is nothing in their etymology 
to support the manner in which they have come to be 
distinguished. In Much Ado About Nothing, ii. 3, al- 
though the scene is headed " Leonato's Garden" Benedick, 
sending the Boy for a book from his chamber-window, 

L 



146 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTABY. [ACT II. 

says, " Bring it hither to me in the orchard." A Garden 
(or yard, as it is still called in Scotland) means merely a 
piece of ground girded in or enclosed ; and an Orchard 
(properly Ortyard) is, literally, such an enclosure for 
worts, or herbs. At one time Orchard used to be written 
Hortyard, under the mistaken notion that it was derived 
from hortus (which may, however, be of the same stock). 

143. How near to day. — How near it may be to the 
day. 

143. I would it were my fault. — Compare the use of 
fault here with its sense in 120. 

143. When, Lucius ? when ? — This exclamation had not 
formerly the high tragic or heroic sound which it would 
now have. It was merely a customary way of calling 
impatiently to one who had not obeyed a previous sum- 
mons. So in 'Richard the Second (i. 2) John of Gaunt 
calls to his son — " When, Harry ? when ? Obedience bids, 
I should not bid again." 

147. But for the general. — The general was formerly a 
common expression for what we now call the community 
or the people. Thus Angelo in Measure for Measure, 
ii. 4 : — 

"The general, subject to a well- wished king, 
Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness 
Crowd to his presence." 

147. And that craves. — It might be questioned whether 
that here be the demonstrative (as it is commonly con- 
sidered) or the relative (to the antecedent " the bright 

day"). 

147. Crown him ? That. — Here the emphatic that ap- 
pears to be used exactly as so (etymologically of the same 
import) often is. Vid. 57. Either, or any equivalent 
term, thus used, might obviously serve very well for the 
sign of affirmation ; in the present passage we might sub- 
stitute yes for that with the same effect. It used to be 
held that the French oui, anciently oyl, was merely the 



SC. 1.] JULIUS CiESATl. 147 

ill of the classic ill-e, ill-a, ill-ad, and that the old Pro- 
vencal oc was hoc. It appears however, that oui or oyl is 
really voul (orje void), the old present of vouloir. The 
common word for yes in Italian, again, si (not unknown 
in the same sense to the Trench tongue), may be another 
form of so. The three languages used to be distinguished 
as the Langue d'Oyl (or Lingua Oytana), the Langue d'Oc 
(or Lingua Occitand), and the Lingua di Si. — The point- 
ing in the First Folio here is " Crowne him that, And 
then," etc. 

147. Do danger. — Danger, which we have borrowed 
from the French, is a corruption of the middle age Latin 
domigerium, formed from damno. It is, in fact, radically 
the same with damage. A detail of the variations of 
meaning which the word has undergone in both languages 
would make a long history. In French also it anciently 
bore the same sense (that of mischief) which it has here. 
Sometimes, again, in both languages, it signified power to 
do mischief or to injure ; as when Portia, in TJie Merchant 
of Venice (iv. 1), speaking to Antonio of Shylock, says, 
" You stand within his danger, do you not ? " 

147. The abuse of greatness is, etc. — The meaning ap- 
parently is, " The abuse to which greatness is most subject 
is when it deadens in its possessor the natural sense of 
humanity, or of that which binds us to our kind ; and 
this I do not say that it has yet done in the case of Caesar; 
I have never known that in him selfish affection, or mere 
passion, has carried it over reason." 'Remorse is generally 
used by Shakespeare in a wider sense than that to which 
it is now restricted. 

147. But His a common proof. — A thing commonly 
proved or experienced (what commonly, as we should say, 
proves to be the case) . 

A frequent word with Shakespeare for to prove is to 
approve. Thus, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, v. 4, 
we have — 



148 PHILOLOGICAL COMME^TABY. [ACT II. 

" 0, 'tis the curse in love, and still approved, 
When women cannot love where they're beloved." 

So, in Much Ado About Nothing, we have, in iv. 1, " an 
approved wanton," and afterwards "Is he not approved 
in the height a villain ? " When Don Pedro in the same 
Play, ii. 1, describes Benedick as " of approved valour," 
the words cannot be understood as conveying any notion 
of what we now call approval, or approbation ; the mean- 
ing is merely, that he had proved his valour by his con- 
duct. This is, no doubt, also, the meaning of the word in 
the last verse of Sir Thomas Wyat's passionately earnest 
lines entitled " To his Mistress " (supposed to be Anne 
Boleyn) : — 

" Forget not, then, thine own approved, 
The which so long hath thee so loved, 
Whose steadfast faith yet never moved ; 
Forget not this ! " 

So in Hamlet, i. 1, Marcellus says, speaking of Horatio 
and the Ghost, — 

" 1 have entreated him along 

With us to watch the minutes of this night, 

That, if again this apparition come, 

He may approve our eyes, and speak to it ; " 

that is, prove our eyes true. And in Meas.for Meas., L 
3, Claudio says, — 

" This day my sister should the cloister enter, 
And there receive her approbation " — 

for what we now c&R probation. This sense of the word 
(which we still retain in the law-term an approver, in 
Latin probator) occurs repeatedly both in the Bible and 
in Milton, and in fact is the most common sense which it 
has in our earlier English. It is strange that it should 
not be noticed at all by Wares, and that the only reference 
for it in Boucher is in the following insertion by Stephen- 
son : — " To bring proof of. — ' Matabrun in likewise en- 



SC. 1.] JULIUS CiESAK. 149 

devored tier on the other syde to approve the said iniury 
. . . bi hir commised and purpensed.' — Heylas, p. 27." 

147. Whereto the climber upward, etc. — There is no 
hyphen in the original text connecting climber and upward, 
as there is in some modern editions ; bnt any doubt as 
to whether the adverb should be taken along with climber 
or with turns might be held to be determined by the 
expression in Macbeth, iv. 2 : — " Things at the worst 
will cease, or else climb upwards To what they were 
before." 

147. The upmost round. — The step of a ladder has come 
to be called a round, I suppose, from its being usually 
eylindrically shaped. Mr Knight (whose collation of the 
old copies is in general so remarkably careful) has here 
(probably by a typographical error) utmost. 

147. The base degrees. — The lower steps of the ladder 
— les bas degres (from the Latin gradus) of the French. 
The epithet base, however, must be understood to express 
something of contempt, ^s well as to designate the position 
of the steps. 

147. By which he did ascend. — It is not the syntax of 
our modern English to use the auxiliary verb in such a 
case as this. Vid. 16. 

147. Then, lest he may, prevent. — We should not now 
say to prevent lest. But the word prevent continued to 
convey its original import of to come before more distinctly 
in Shakespeare's day than it does now. Vid. 161 and 709. 

147. Will bear no colour for the thing he is.— "Will take 
no shew, no plausibility, no appearance of being a just 
quarrel, if professed to be founded upon what Caesar at 
present actually is. The use of colour, and colourable, in 
this sense is still familiar. 

147. What he is, augmented. — What he now is, if aug- 
mented or heightened (as it is the nature of things that 
it should be). 

147. Would run to these, etc. — To such and such ex- 



150 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

tremities (which we must suppose to be stated and 
explained). Vid. 109. 

147. Think him as. — The verb to think has now lost 
this sense, though we might still say " Think him a ser- 
pent's egg," " Think him good, or wicked," and also " To 
think a good or evil thought." 

147. As his kind. — Like his species. 

147. And kill him in the shell. — It is impossible not to 
feel the expressive effect of the hemistich here. The line 
itself is, as it were, killed in the shell. 

148. This speech is headed in the Folios "Enter 
Lucius." The old stage direction, " Gives him the Letter," 
is omitted by most of the modern editors. 

149. The ides of March. — The reading of all the ancient 
copies is " the first of March ; " it was Theobald who first 
made the correction, which has been adopted by all suc- 
ceeding editors (on the ground that the day was actually 
that of the ides) . At the same time, it does not seem to 
be impossible that the poet may have intended to present 
a strong image of the absorption of Erutus by making 
him forget the true time of the month. The reply of 
Lucius after consulting the Calendar — "Sir, March is 
wasted fourteen days " — sounds very much as if he were 
correcting rather than confirming his master's notion. 
Against this view we have the considerations stated by 
"Warburton ; — " AVe can never suppose the speaker to 
have lost fourteen days in his account. He is here plainly 
ruminating on what the Soothsayer told Caesar [i. 2] in 
his presence [Beware the ides of March"] ." Mr Collier 
also prints "the ides ; " but the correction does not ap- 
pear to be made by his MS. annotator. Mr Knight, I 
apprehend, must be mistaken in saying that Shakespeare 
found " the first of March " in North's Plutarch : the 
present incident is not, I believe, anywhere related by 
Plutarch. 

153. Brutus, thou sleep' st ; awake. — I have endeavour- 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^SAR. 151 

ed to indicate by the printing that the second enunciation 
of these words is a repetition by Brutus to himself, and 
not, as it is always made to appear, a further portion of 
the letter. The letter unquestionably concluded with the 
emphatic adjuration," Speak, strike, redress ! " It never, 
after this, would have proceeded to go over the ground 
again in the same words that had been already used. 
They would have only impaired the effect, and would have 
been quite inappropriate in their new place. We see how 
the speaker afterwards repeats in the like manner each of 
the other clauses before commenting upon it. 

153. Where I have took.—Vid. 46. 

153. Speak, strike, redress ! — Am I entreated, etc. — The 
expression is certainly not strengthened by the then which 
was added to these words by Hanmer, in the notion that 
it was required by the prosody, and has been retained by 
Steevens and other modern editors. At the same time 
Mr Knight's doctrine, that " a pause, such as must be 
made after redress, stands in the place of a syllable," will, 
at any rate, not do here ; for we should want two syllables 
after redress. The best way is to regard the supposed 
line as being in reality two hemistichs ; or to treat the 
words repeated from the letter as no part of the verse. 
How otherwise are we to manage the preceding quotation, 
" ShaH Eome, etc." ? 

153. I make thee promise. — I make promise to thee. In 
another connexion, the words might mean I make thee 
to promise. The Second Folio has "the promise." The 
heading that follows this speech, and also 155, in the First 
Folio is Enter Lucius. 

153. Thou receivest. — Mr Collier prints receiv'st, — it is 
not apparent why. 

154. March is wasted fourteen days. — In all the old edi- 
tions it is fifteen. The correction Avas made by Theobald. 
Vid. 149. Mr Collier has also fourteen ; but he does not 
here appear to have the authority of his MS. annotator. 



152 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTABY. [ACT II. 

— The heading which precedes is "Enter Lucius" in the 
original text. 

155. The genius and the mortal instruments. — The com- 
mentators have written and disputed lavishly npon these 
celebrated words. Apparently, by the genius we are to 
understand the contriving and immortal mind, and most 
probably the mortal instruments are the earthly passions. 
The best light for the interpretation of the present passage 
is reflected from 186, where Brutus, advising with his 
fellow conspirators on the manner in which they should 
dispatch their mighty victim, not as blood-thirsty butch- 
ers, but as performing a sacrifice of which they lamented 
the necessity, says : — 

"Let our hearts, as subtle masters do, 
Stir up their servants to an act of rage, 
And after seem to chide 'em." 

The servants here may be taken to be the same with the 
instruments in the passage before us. It has been pro- 
posed to understand by the mortal instruments the bodily 
powers or organs ; but it is not obvious how these could 
be said to hold consultation with the genius or mind. 
Neither could they in the other passage be so fitly said 
to be stirred up by the heart. 

The bodily organs, however, seem to be distinctly desig- 
nated the instruments and agents, in Coriolanus, i. 1, where, 
first, Menenius Agrippa says, in his apologue of the rebel- 
lion of the other members of the body against the belly,— 

" The other instruments 
Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, 
And, mutually participate, did minister 
Unto the appetite and affection common 
Of the whole body " — 

and, shortly after, the Second Citizen asks, — 

" The former agents, if they did complain, 
What could the belly answer ? " 

So again, in Macheth, i. 7 : — 



SC. 1.] JULIUS CiESAE. 153 

"lam settled, and bent up 
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat." 

We have, apparently, the word Genius used for the 
spirit or mind in what the Duke says, in The Comedy of 
Errors, v. 1, of the two Antipholuses and the two 
Dromios : — 

" One of these men is genius to the other ; 
And so of these : which is the natural man, 
And which the spirit ? " 

155. And the state of a man. — This is the original read- 
ing, in which the prosodieal irregularity is nothing more 
than what frequently occurs. The common reading omits 
the article. There is certainly nothing gained in vivid- 
ness of expression by so turning the concrete into the 
abstract. "We have elsewhere, indeed, in Macbeth, i. 3, 
" My single state of man;" and Falstaff, in the Second 
Part of Henry IV., iv. 4, speaks of " This little kingdom, 
man ; " bat in neither of these cases is the reference in 
the word man to an individual, as here. — The Exit Lucius 
attached to the first line of this speech is modern. 

156. Your brother Cassius. — Cassius had married Junia, 
the sister of Brutus. 

158. No, Sir, there are moe with him. — Moe, not more, 
is the word here and in other passages, not only in the 
First, but in all the Four Folios. It was probably the 
common form in the popular speech throughout the seven- 
teenth century, as it still is in Scotland in the dialectic 
meh? (pronounced exactly as the English may). No con- 
fusion or ambiguity is produced in this case by the reten- 
tion of the old word, of continual occurrence both in 
Chaucer and Spenser, such as makes it advisable to con- 
vert the then, which the original text of the Plays gives 
us after the comparative, into our modern than. In some 
cases, besides, the moe is absolutely required by the verse ; 
as in Balthazar's Song in Much Ado About Nothing 
(it. 3) :— 



154 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEXTAKY. [ACT II. 

" Sing no more ditties, sing no moe, 
Or dumps so dull and heavy ; 
The frauds of men were ever so, 
Since summer first was leavy." 

160. PlucJct about their ears. — Pulled down about 
their ears. 

160. By any mark of favour. — That is, of feature or 
countenance. Vid. 54. 

161. When evils are most free ! — When evil things have 
most freedom. 

161. To mash thy monstrous visage ? — The only prosodi- 
cal irregularity in this line is the common one of the one 
supernumerary short syllable (the age of visage) . The two 
unaccented syllables which follow the fifth accented one 
have no effect. 

161. Hide it in smiles. — This is the old reading, which 
Mr Knight has restored. He states that all the modern 
editions have in it. 

161. For, if thou path, thy native semllance on. — 
Coleridge has declared himself convinced that we should 
here read "if thou put thy native semblance on; " and 
Mr Knighfc is inclined to agree with him, seeing that 
putte might be easily mistaken for path e. If path be the 
word, the meaning must be, If thou go forth. Path is 
employed as a verb by Drayton, but not exactly in this 
sense : he speaks of pathing a passage, and pathing a 
way, that is, making or smoothing a passage or way. 
There is no comma or other point after path in the old 
copies. 

161. To hide thee from prevention. — To prevent (pra> 
venire) is to come before, and so is equivalent in effect 
with to hinder, which is literally to make behind. I 
make that behind me which I get before. — The heading 
that follows is in the old copies ; — " Enter the Conspira- 
tors, Cassius, Casca, Deems, Cinna, JKetellus, and Tre- 
bonius." 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^SAR. 155 

162. We are too hold upon your rest. — "We intrude too 
boldly or unceremoniously upon your rest. 

168. This, Casca ; this, Cinna ; etc. — I print this speech 
continuously, as it stands in the original edition, and as 
Mr Knight has also given it. It might perhaps be pos- 
sible, by certain violent processes, to reduce it to the rude 
semblance of a line of verse, or to break it up, as has also 
been attempted, into something like a pair of hemistichs : 
but it is far better to regard it as never having been in- 
tended for verse at all, like many other brief utterances 
of the same level kind interspersed in this and all the 
other Plays. 

173. And yon grey lines. — This is the reading of all the 
Folios. Why does Mr Collier print yond' ? 

174. Which is a great way, etc. — The commentators, 
who flood us with their explanations of many easier pas- 
sages, have not a word to say upon this. Casca means 
that the point of sunrise is as yet far to the south (of 
east), weighing (that is, taking into account, or on account 
of) the unadvanced period of the year. But is there not 
some allusion, which the look and tone of the speaker 
might express more clearly than his words, to the great 
act about to be performed in the Capitol, and the change, 
as of a new day, that was expected to follow it ? Other- 
wise, it is difficult to understand the elaborate emphasis 
of the whole speech, — more especially the closing words — 

" and the high, east 
Stands, as the Capitol, directly here." 

175. Give me your hands all over. — That is, all included. 
The idiom is still common. 

177. If not the face of men. — The commentators are all 
alive here, one proposing to read fate of men, another 
faith of men, another faiths (as nearer in sound to face). 
It is difficult to see much difficulty in the old reading, 
understood as meaning the looks of men. It is prefer- 



156 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

able, at any rate, to anything which it has been proposed 
to substitute. 

177. The time's abuse. — This, apparently, must be taken 
to mean the prevalence of abuse generally, all the abuses 
of the time. 

177. Hence to his idle led. — That is, bed of idleness, or 
in which he may lie doing nothing (not vacant or un- 
occupied bed, as some would understand it). 

177. So let high-sighted tyranny. — High-looking, proud. 
— Some modern editions have rage instead of range, pro- 
bably by an accidental misprint. 

177. Till each man drop by lottery. — That is, probably, 
as if by chance, without any visible cause why he in par- 
ticular should be struck down or taken off. It has been 
suggested, however, that there may be an allusion to the 
process of decimation. 

177. Than secret Romans, — Romans bound to secrecy. 

177. And will not palter? — To palter (perhaps ety- 
mologically connected with falter) means to shuffle, to 
equivocate, to act or speak unsteadily or dubiously with 
the intention to deceive. It is best explained by the 
well-known passage in Macbeth (v. 7) : — 

"And be these juggling fiends no more believed, 
That palter with us in a double sense ; 
That keep the word of promise to our ear, 
And break it to our hope." 

177. Or ive will fall for it ?— "Will die for it. 

177. Men cautelous. — Cautelous is given to cautels, full 
of cautels. A cant el, from the Roman law-term cautela 
(a caution, or security), is mostly used in a discreditable 
sense by our old Eng'ish writers. The caution has passed 
into cunning in their acceptation of the word ; — it was 
natural that caution should be popularly so estimated ; — 
and by cautels they commonly mean craftinesses, deceits. 
Thus we have in Hamlet (i. 3) ; — 



SC. 1.] JTTLirS CJESAB. 157 

" And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch 
The virtue of his will." 

And in the passage before us cautelous is cautious and 
wary at least to the point of cowardice, if not to that of 
insidiousness and trickery. 

177. Old feeble carrions. — Carrions, properly masses of 
dead and putrefying flesh, is a favourite term of contempt 
with Shakespeare. 

177. Such suffering souls, etc. — See the note on that 
gentleness as in 44. In the present speech we have both 
the old and the new phraseology; — such . . . that in one 
line, and such . . . as in the next. — Suffering souls are 
patient, all-enduring souls. 

177. The even virtue of our enterprise. — The even virtue 
is the firm and steady virtue. The our is emphatic. 

177. Nor the insuppressive mettle. — The keenness and 
ardour incapable of being suppressed (however illegiti- 
mate such a form with that sense maybe thought to be). 
So we have in As You Like It {Hi. 2) " The fair, the 
chaste, and unexpressive she." And even Milton has 
(Lycidas, 176) " And hears the unexpressive nuptial song." 
— For mettle see 102. 

177. To think that. — The easiest supplement, or filling 
up of the ellipsis, is, so as to think. 

177. Is guilty of a several bastardy. — The etymology of 
the word bastard is uncertain. Shakespeare probably 
took his notion of what it radically expressed from the 
convertible phrase base-born. Thus, in Lear, i. 2, Edmund 
soliloquizes, — ' ; Why bastard ? Wherefore base ? " Ey a 
several bastardy here is meant a special or distinct act of 
baseness, or of treason against ancestry and honourable 
birth. For several see 441. 

178. But what of Cicero ? etc. — Eoth the prosody and 
the sense direct us to lay the emphasis on him. 

, 178. He will stand very strong. — He will take part 
with us decidedlv and warmly. 



158 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT n. 

181. It shall be said, his judgment, etc. — Dr Guest, in 
the paper " On English Verbs," in the Second Volume of 
the Proceedings of the Philological Society, which has 
been already referred to, adduces some examples to show 
that the primary sense of shall is to owe. Hence the use 
of should which is still common in the sense of ought. 
" The use of shall to denote future time," Dr Guest con- 
tinues, " may be traced to a remote antiquity in our lan- 
guage ; that of will is of much later origin, and prevailed 
chiefly in our northern dialects. — "Writers, however, who 
paid much attention to their style generally used these 
terms with greater precision. The assertion of will or of 
duty seems to have been considered by them as implying 
to a certain extent the power to will or to impose a duty. 
As a man has power to will for himself only, it was only 
in the first person that the verb will could be used with 
this signification ; and in the other persons it was left 
free to take that latitude of meaning which popular usage 
had given to it. Again, the power which overrides the 
will to impose a duty must proceed from some external 
agency; and consequently shall could not be employed 
to denote such power in the first person. In the first 
person, therefore, it was left free to follow the popular 
meaning, but in the other two was tied to its original and 
more precise signification. These distinctions still con- 
tinue a shibboleth for the natives of the two sister king- 
doms. Walter Scott, as is well known to his readers, 
could never thoroughly master the difficulty." 

In the Third Edition of Dr Latham's English Language, 
pp. 470 — 474, may be found two other explanations ; the 
first by the late Archdeacon Julius Charles Hare (from 
the Cambridge Philological Museum, n. 203), the second 
by Professor De Morgan (from the Proceedings of the 
Philological Society, iv. 185 ; No. 90, read 25th Jan. 1850). 

The manner of using shall and will which is now so 
completely established in England, and which through- 



SC. 1.] JULIUS CJSSA.E. 159 

out the greater part of the country is so perfectly uniform 
among all classes, was as yet only growing up in the early 
part of the seventeenth century. This was very clearly 
shewn some years ago by a writer in Blackwood's Maga- 
zine, by comparing many passages of the authorized ver- 
sion of the Scriptures, published in 1611, with the same 
passages in the preceding translation, called the Bishops' 
Bible, which had appeared in 1568. The old use of shall, 
instead of will, to indicate simple futurity, with the 2nd 
and 3rd persons, as well as with the 1st, is still common 
with Shakespeare. Here, in this and the next line, are two 
instances : — " It shall be said ; " " Shall no whit appear." 
So afterwards we have, in 187, " This shall mark our pur- 
pose necessary ; " in 238, " Caesar should be a beast with- 
out a heart ; " in 351, " The enemies of Caesar shall say 
this ; " in 620, " The enemy, marching along by them, By 
them shall make a fuller number up." Yfe have occasion- 
ally the same use of shall even in Clarendon: — " "Wnilst 
there are Courts in the world, emulation and ambition 
ivill be inseparable from them ; and kings who have no- 
thing to give shall be pressed to promise " (Hist., Book 
xiii) . In some rare instances the received text of Shake- 
speare gives us mil where we should now use shall ; as 
when Portia says, in The Merchant of Venice, Hi. 4, 
" I'll hold thee any wager, 

When we are both accoutred like young men, 

Til prove the prettier felloe* of the two." 

But here we should probably read " / prove." 

181. Shall no whit appear. — Whit is the Original Eng- 
lish wilit, any thing that exists, a creature. It is the same 
word with wight, which we now use only for a man, in 
the same manner as we have come in the language of the 
present day to understand creature almost exclusively in 
the sense of a living creature, although it was formerly 
used freely for every thing created, — as when Bacon says 
(Essay, Of Truth), "The first creature of God, in the 



160 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENT AKY. [ACT II. 

works of the days, was the light of the sense ; the last was 
the light of reason ; and his Sabbath work ever since is 
the illumination of his spirit ;" or {Advance, of Learning, 
B. L), " The wit and mind of man, if it work upon matter, 
which is the contemplation of the creatures of God, work- 
eth according to the stuff, and is limited thereby ; " or as 
it is written in our authorized version of the Scriptures 
(1 Tim. iv. 4), " Every creature of God (nav /cr/oyza Qeoii) 
is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with 
thanksgiving." We have creature used in this extensive 
sense even by so late a writer as the Scotch metaphysician 
Dr Eeid (who died in 1796), in his Inquiry into the 
Human Mind, ch. 1, first published in 1764 : — " Conjec- 
tures and theories are the creatures of men, and will 
always be found very unlike the creatures of God." — .No 
whit is not anything, nowhat, not at all. And our modern 
not (anciently nought) is undoubtedly no whit : — how 
otherwise is the t to be accounted for ? So that our Eng- 
lish "I do not speak, "=I do no whit speak, is an exactly 
literal translation of the Erench Je ne parte pas (or point), 
which many people believe to contain a double negative. 
182. Let us not break with him. — That is, Let us not 
break the matter to him. This is the sense in which the 
idiom to hreak with is most frequently found in Shake- 
speare. Thus, in Much Ado About Nothing (i. 1), the 
Prince, Don Pedro, says to his favourite Don Claudio, 
" If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it ; and I will break 
with her ; " that is, I will open the matter to her. And 
again, in the same scene ; " Then after to her father will 
I break." So in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (iii. 1) ? 
" I am to break with thee of some affairs." But when in 
The Merry Wives of Windsor (iii. 2), Slender says to 
Eord, in answer to his invitation to dinner, " We have 
appointed to dine with Mistress Anne, and I would not 
break with her for more money than I'll speak of," he 
means he would not break his engagement with her. The 



sc. 1.] jnirs C^SAE. 161 

phrase is nowhere, I believe, used by Shakespeare in the 
only sense which it now bears, namely, to quarrel with. 

1S6. A shrewd contriver. — The adjective shrewd is 
generally admitted to be connected with the substantive 
shrew ; and according to Home Tooke (Div. of Purleg, 
457-9), both are formations from the Original English 
verb syrwan, syrewan, or syrewian, meaning to vex, to 
molest, to cause mischief to, from which he also deduces 
sorrow, sorry, sore, and sour. Bosworth (who gives the 
additional forms syrwian, syrwyan, searwian, searwan, secrr- 
ian, serian), interprets the old verb as meaning to pre- 
pare, endeavour, strive, arm, to lay snares, entrap, take, 
bruise. A shrew, according to this notion, might be in- 
ferred to be one who vexes or molests ; and shrewd will 
mean endowed with the qualities or disposition of a shrew. 
Shrew, as Tooke remarks, was formerly applied to a male 
as well as to a female. So, on the other hand, paramour 
and lover, now only used of males, were formerly also ap- 
plied to females ; and in some of the provincial dialects 
villain is still a common term of reproach for both sexes 
alike. 

Eoth to shrew and to heshrew are used by our old writers 
in the sense of to curse, which latter verb, again (originally 
cursan or cursian) , also primarily and properly signifies to 
vex or torment. Xow, it is a strong confirmation of the 
derivation of shrewd from the verb to shrew that we find 
shrewd and curst applied to the disposition and temper by 
our old writers in almost, or rather in precisely, the same 
sense. Shakespeare himself affords us several instances. 
Thus, in Much Ado About Nothing (ii. l),Leonato having 
remarked to Beatrice, " By my troth, niece, thou wilt 
never get a husband if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue," 
his brother Antonio adds, assentingly, " In faith, she's too 
curst." So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Hi. 2), 
Helena, declining to reply to a torrent of abuse from 
Hermia, says, " I was never curst ; I have no gift at all 



162 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENT AET. [ACT II. 

in shrewishness." And in The Taming of the Shrew (i. 
2), first we have Hortensio describing Katharine to his 
friend Petrucio as "intolerable curst, and shrewd, and 
froward," and then we have Katharine, the shrew, repeat- 
edly designated " Katharine the curst." At the end of 
the Play she is called "a curst shrew," that is, as we 
might otherwise express it, an ill-tempered shrew. 

Shrew, by the way, whether the substantive or the verb, 
always, I believe, and also shrewd very frequently, appear 
throughout the Pirst Polio with ow as the diphthong, 
instead of ew ; and in The Taming of the Shrew the word 
shreiv is in various places made to rhyme with the sound 
of o; so that there can be little doubt that its common pro- 
nunciation in Shakespeare's day was shrow, and also that 
the same vowel sound was given to shreivd or shrowd in 
at least some of its applications. It is the reverse of 
what appears to have happened in the case of the word 
which probably was formerly pronounced shew (as it is 
still often spelled), but now always show. Thus Milton, 
in his 7th Sonnet : — 

" How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, 
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year ! 
My hasting days fly on with Ml career, 
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th." 

So likewise in 11 Penseroso (171, 172) : — 

" Of every star that heaven doth shew, 
And every herb that sips the dew." 

In the case, again, of strew, or strow, neither mode 
either of spelling or of pronunciation can perhaps be said 
to have quite gone out, although the dictionaries, I be- 
lieve, enjoin us to write the word with an e, but to give 
it the sound of an o. In the passage before us the Pirst 
Polio has " a shrew' d contriver." 

As it is in words that ill-temper finds the readiest and 
most frequent vent, the terms curst and shrew, and 



SC. 1.] JfLirS C-£SAE. 163 

shrewd, and shrewish are often used with a special refer- 
ence to the tongue. But sharpness of tongue, again, 
always implies some sharpness of understanding as well 
as of temper. The terms shrewd and shrewdly, accord- 
ingly, have come to convey usually something of both of 
these qualities. — at one time, perhaps,, most of the one. at 
another of the other. The sort of ability that vre call 
shrewdness never suggests the notion of anything very 
high : the word has always a touch in it of the sarcastic 
or disparaging. But. on the other hand, the disparage- 
ment which it expresses is never without an admission of 
something also that is creditable or flattering. Hence it 
has come to pass that a person does not hesitate to use 
the terms in question even of himself and his own judg- 
ments or conjectures. ~VTe say. "I shrewdly suspect or 
guess.' 5 or "I have a shrewd guess, or suspicion.' 1 taking 
the liberty of thus asserting or assuming our own intel- 
lectual acumen under cover of the modest confession at 
the same time of some little ill-nature in the exercise of it. 
Even when shrewd is used without any personal refer- 
ence, the sharpness which it implies is generally, if not 
always, a more or less unpleasant sharpness. ; * This last 
day was a shrewd one to us," says one of the Soldiers of 
Octavius to his comrade, in Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 9, 
after the encounter in which they had been driven back 
by Antony near Alexandria. Shrewdness is even used by 
Chaucer in the sense of evil generally ; as in The House 
of Fame. Hi. 537 : — 

" Speke of hem harm, and shreuednesse, 
Instead of gode and worthinesse." 

And so too Bacon: — "An ant is a wise creature for it 

self; but it is a shrewd thing in an orchard or garden.'' 
Essay 23rd ; " Of Wisdom for a Man's Self." 

1S6. If he improve them. — That is, if he apply them, 
if he turn them to account. It is remarkable that no 

M 2 



164 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

notice is taken of this sense of the word either by Johnson 
or Todd. Many examples of it are given by Webster 
nnder both Improve and Improvement. They are taken 
from the writings, among others, of Tillotson, Addison, 
Chatham, Blackstone, Gibbon. We all remember 

" How doth the little busy bee 
Improve each shining hour." 

Even Johnson himself, in The Rambler, talks of a man 
" capable of enjoying and improving life," — by which he 
can only mean turning it to account. The im of improve 
must be, or must have been taken to be, the preposition 
or the intensive particle, not the in negative, although it 
is the latter which we have both in the Latin improbus 
and improbo, and also in the Trench improuver, the only 
signification of which is to disapprove, and although in 
the latinized English of some of our writers of the six- 
teenth century to improve occurs in the senses both of to 
reprove and to disprove. In Much Ado About Nothing, 
ii. 3, when Benedick, speaking to himself of Beatrice, says, 
" They say the lady is fair ; . . . and virtuous ; 'tis so, I 
cannot reprove it," he seems to mean that he cannot dis- 
prove it. The manner in which the word improve was 
used in the middle of the seventeenth century may be 
seen from the following sentences of Clarendon's : — " This 
gave opportunity and excuse to many persons of quality 
... to lessen their zeal to the King's cause ; . . . and 
those contestations had been lately improved with some 
sharpness by the Lord Herbert's carriage towards the 
Lord Marquis of Hertford " (Hist., Book vi.). " Though 
there seemed reasons enough to dissuade her [the Queen] 
from that inclination [of retiring from Oxford, when it 
was threatened with a siege, for Exeter], and his majesty 
heartily wished that she could be diverted, yet the per- 
plexity of her mind was so great, and her fears so vehe- 
ment, both improved by her indisposition of health, that 



SC. 1.] JULIUS OXSAB. 165 

all civility and reason obliged everybody to submit" (Id., 
Book viii.). 

187. And envy afterwards. — Envy lias here the sense 
often borne by the Latin invidia, or nearly the same 
with hatred or malice. And this, as Malone remarks, 
is the sen&e in which it is almost always used by Shake- 
speare. 

187. Let us he sacrificers. — I cannot think that the 
Let's he of the Eirst Folio indicates more, at most, than 
that it was the notion of the original printer or editor 
that sacrificers should be pronounced with the empha-sis 
on the second syllable. If we keep to the ordinary pro- 
nunciation, the line will merely have two supernumerary 
short, or unaccented, syllables ; that is to say, " sacrificers, 
but not" will count for only two feet, or four syllables. 
This is nothing more than what we have in many other 
lines. 

187. We all stand up, etc. — Spirit is the emphatic word 
in this line. 

187. And let our hearts, etc. — Vid. 155. 

187. This shall mark.— For the shall see 181.— The old 
reading is " This shall make" which is sense, if at all, only 
on the assumption that make is here equivalent to make 
to seem. I have no hesitation in accepting the correction, 
which we owe to Mr Collier's MS. annotator. We have 
now a clear meaning perfectly expressed ; — this will show 
to all that our act has been a measure of stern and sad 
necessity, not the product of envy (or private hatred) . 

187. Our purpose necessary, etc. — There is nothing 
irregular in the prosody of this line, nor any elision to be 
made. The measure is completed by the en of envious; 
the two additional unaccented syllables have no prosodical 
effect. 

188. Yet I do fear him.— The old reading is, "Yet I 
fear him;" the do was inserted by Steevens. It im- 
proves, if it is not absolutely required by, the sense or 



166 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

expression as well as the prosody. Mr Knight, by whom 
it is rejected, says, "The pause which naturally occurs 
before Cassius offers an answer to the impassioned argu- 
ment of Brutus would be most decidedly marked by a 
proper reader or actor." This pause Mr Knight would 
have to be equivalent to a single short sellable, or half a 
time. Surely one somewhat longer would have been 
necessary for such an effect as is supposed. — The manner 
in which the next line is given in the original text shows 
that the printer or so-called editor had no notion of what 
the words meant, or whether they had any meaning : in 
his exhibition of them, with a full-point after Casar, they 
have none. 

189. Is to himself, etc. — To think, or to take thought, 
seems to have been formerly used in the sense of to give 
way to sorrow and despondency. Thus, in Antony and 
Cleopatra, Hi. 11, to Cleopatra's question, after the battle 
of Actium, " What shall we do, Enobarbus ? " the answer 
of that worthy is, " Think and die." 

189. And that were much he should. — That would be 
much for him to do. 

190. There is no fear in him. — That is, cause of fear. 
It is still common to use terror in this active sense, — as 
when in 551 Brutus says, " There is no terror, Cassius, in 
your threats." 

192. The clock hath stricken. — Vid. 46. 

194. Whether Ccesar will come forth to day or no. — ■ 
JVhether is thus given uncontracted here in all the old 
copies. And it might have so stood, inoffensively enough, 
in all the other passages in which the slight irregularity of 
the superfluous short syllable has been got rid of by its 
conversion into ivhere or wheW. 

194. Quite from the main opinion. — " Quite from " is 
quite away from. So in Twelfth Night, v. 1, Malvolio, 
charging the Countess with having written the letter, 
says : — 



sc. 1.] Julius oaiSAB. 167 

" You must not now deny it is your hand ; 
Write from it, if you can, in hand or phrase." 

Malone remarks that the words "main opinion" occur 
also in Troilus and Cressida, where, as he thinks, they 
signify, as here, general estimation. The passage is in i. 
3:— 

" Why then we should our main opinion crush 
In taint of our best man." 

Johnson's interpretation is perhaps better; — "leading, 
fixed, predominant opinion." Mason has ingeniously 
proposed to read "mean opinion" in the present passage. 

194. Of fantasy, etc. — Fantasy is fancy, or imagination, 
with its unaccountable anticipations and apprehensions, 
as opposed to the calculations of reason. By ceremonies, 
as Malone notes, we are to understand here omens or 
signs deduced from sacrifices or other ceremonial rites. 
The word is used again in the same sense in 233. For 
another sense of it see 16. 

194. These apparent prodigies. — Apparent is here plain, 
evident, about which there can be no doubt ; as in Pal- 
staff's (to Prince Henry) "Were it not here apparent 
that thou art heir apparent " (First part of King Henry 
the Fourth, i. 2), — where the here is also certainly intend- 
ed to coincide with the heir, giving rise to a suspicion that 
the latter word may have, sometimes at least, admitted of 
a different pronunciation in Shakespeare's day from that 
which it always has now. So when Milton says of our 
first parents after their fall (Far. Lost, cc. 112) that 

" Love was not in their looks, either to God 
Or to each other, but apparent guilt," 

he means by " apparent guilt " manifest and undoubted 
guilt. In other cases by apparent we mean, not empha- 
tically apparent, or indisputable, but simply apparent, 
apparent and nothing more, or what we otherwise call 
probable or seeming. "The sense is apparent " would 



168 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

mean that the sense is plain; "the apparent sense is," 
that the sense seems to be. 

194. The unaccustomed terror. — Unaccustomed is un- 
usual ; we now commonly employ it for unused to. Terror 
has here the active sense, as fear has in 190. 

194. And the persuasion of his augurers. — Augurer, 
formed from the verb, is Shakespeare's usual word, in- 
stead of the Latin augur, which is commonly employed, 
and which he too, however, sometimes has. So again in 
236. 

195. That unicorns, etc. — "Unicorns," says Steevens, 
" are said to have been taken by one who, running behind a 
tree, eluded the violent push the animal was making at him, 
so that his horn spent its force on the trunk, and stuck 
fast, detaining the beast till he was dispatched by the 
hunter." He quotes in illustration Spenser's description 
(F. Q. ii. 5) :— 

" Like as a lion whose imperial power 
A proud rebellious unicorn defies, 
To avoid the rash assault and wrathful stour 
Of his tierce foe him to a tree applies ; 
And, when him running in full course he spies, 
He slips aside ; the whiles the furious beast 
His precious horn, sought of his enemies, 
Strikes in the stock, ne thence can be releast, 
But to the mighty victor yields a bounteous feast." 

" Bears," adds Steevens, " are reported to have been sur- 
prised by means of a mirror, which they would gaze on, 
affording their pursuers an opportunity of taking a surer 
aim. This circumstance, I think, is mentioned by Clau- 
dian. Elephants were seduced into pitfalls, lightly cover- 
ed with hurdles and turf, on which a proper bait to tempt 
them was exposed. See Pliny's Natural History, Book 
viii" Reference might also be made to a speech of Timon 
to Apemantus in Timon of Athens, iv. 3, " If thou wert 
the lion," etc., which is too long to be quoted. The 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^ESAK. 169 

import of the For, with which Decius introduces his state- 
ment, is not seen till we come to his " But when I tell 
him," etc., which, therefore, ought not, as is commonly 
done, to be separated from what precedes by so strong a 
point as the colon, — the substitute of the modern editors 
for the full stop of the original edition. 

195. He says, he does ; leing then most flattered. — The 
ing of leing counts for nothing in the prosody. For the 
ed of flattered, see the note on 246. 

197. By the eighth hour. — It is the eight hour in the 
first three Folios. The author, however, probably wrote 
eighth. 

199. Doth hear Ccesar hard. — Vid. 105. In the Second 
Polio the hard in this passage is changed into hatred. 
But the meaning is manifestly different from what that 
would give, even if to hear one hatred were English at all. 

200. Go along by him. — Pope, who is followed by the 
other editors before Malone, changed by into to. But to go 
along by a person was in Shakespeare's age to take one's 
way where he was. So afterwards in 620, " The enemy, 
marching along by them" (that is, through the country 
of the people between this and Philippi) . 

200. Til fashion him. — I will shape his mind to our 
purposes. 

201. The morning comes upon us. — It may just be noted 
that all the old copies have "upon's." And probably 
such an elision would not have been thought inelegant at 
any time in the seventeenth century. 

202. Let not our looks put on our purposes. — Put on 
such expression as would betray our purposes. Compare 
the exhortation of the strong-minded wife of Macbeth to 
her husband (Macbeth, i. 5) : — 

" To beguile the time, 
Look like the time : bear welcome in your eye, 
Your hand, your tongue ; look like the innocent flower, 
But be the serpent under it." 



170 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

But the sentiment takes its boldest form from the lips of 
Macbeth himself in the first fervour of his weakness ex- 
alted into determined wickedness (i. 7) : — 

" Away, and mock the time with fairest show : 
False face must hide what the false heart doth know." 

202. Formal constancy. — Constancy in outward form, 
or aspect ; the appearance, at any rate, of perfect freedom 
from anxiety and the weight of our great design. The 
original stage direction is ; " Exeunt. Manet Brutus? 

202. The heavy honey -dew of slumber. — This is the cor- 
rection by Mr Collier's MS. annotator of the old reading 
"the honey-heavy dew." I cannot doubt that it gives 
us what Shakespeare wrote. "The compound, 5 ' as Mr 
Collier remarks, " unquestionably is not honey-heavy, but 
honey-dew, a well-known glutinous deposit upon the leaves 
of trees, etc. ; the compositor was guilty of a transposi- 
tion." We have a trace, it might be added, of some con- 
fusion or indistinctness in the manuscript, perhaps 
occasioned by an interlineation, and of the perplexity of 
the compositor, in the strange manner in which in the 
Pirst Polio the dew also, as well as the heavy, is attached 
by a hyphen; thus, "the honey-heavy-Dew." 

202. Thou hast no figures, etc. — Pictures created by 
imagination or apprehension. So, in The Merry Wives 
of Windsor, iv. 2, Mrs Page, to Mrs Pord's " Shall we tell 
our husbands how we have served him (Palstaff) ? " re- 
plies, "Yes, by all means; if it be but to scrape the 
figures out of your husband's brains." 

205. You've ungently. — All the Polios have Y 'have ; 
which, however, was perhaps not pronounced differently 
from the modern elision adopted in the present text. As 
that elision is still common, it seems unnecessary to sub- 
stitute the full You have, as most of the recent editors 
have done. 

205. Stole from my led. — Vid. 46. 



SC. 1.] JTLirS CJESAE. 171 

205. I urged you further. — This is the reading of the 
old copies. Mr Collier, as elsewhere, has farther. 

205. Which sometime hath his hour. — That is, its hour. 
Vid. 54. 

205. Wafture of your hand. — Wafter is the form of the 
word in all the Folios. 

205. Fearing to strengthen that impatience. — For the 
prosody of such lines see the note on 216. 

205. An effect of humour. — Humour is the peculiar 
mood, or caprice, of the moment ; a state of mind opposed 
or exceptional to the general disposition and character. 

205. As it hath much prevailed on your condition. — 
Condition is the general temper or state of mind. We 
still say ill-conditioned, for ill-tempered. Thus, in The 
Merchant of Venice, i. 2, Portia makes the supposition 
that her suitor the black Prince of Morocco, although his 
complexion be that of a devil, may have ' ; the condition 
of a saint." Xote how vividly the strong feeling from 
which Portia speaks is expressed by her repetition of the 
much — " could it work so much As it hath much prevailed." 

205. — Dear my lord. — So, in Romeo and Juliet, Hi. 5, 
Juliet implores her mother, " 0, sweet my mother, cast 
me not away ! " For the principle upon which this form of 
expression is to be explained, see the note on 89. Though 
now disused in English, it corresponds exactly to the 
French Cher Monsieur. The personal pronoun in such 
phrases has become absorbed in the noun to which it is 
prefixed, and its proper or separate import is not thought 
of. A remarkable instance, in another form of construc- 
tion, of how completely the pronoun in such established 
modes of speech was formerly apt to be overlooked, or 
treated as non-significant, occurs in our common version 
of the Bible, where in 1 Kings, xriii. 7, we have, "And, 
as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him : and 
he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Art thou that 
my lord Elijah ? " Still more extraordinary is what we 



172 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

have in Troilus and Cressida, v. 2, where (Ulysses having 
also addressed Troilus, "Nay, good my lord, go off") 
Cressida exclaims to herself, — 

" Ah ! poor our sex ! this fault in us I find, 
The error of our eye directs our mind." 

209. Is it physical ? — Medicinal. 

209. Of the dank morning. — The Second Folio changes 
dank into dark. Mr Collier retains dank ; but it is not 
stated that the restoration is made by his manuscript an- 
notator. 

209. To add unto Ms sickness. — His is misprinted hit 
in the First Folio. So in Macbeth, i. 5, we have, in the 
same original text, "the effect and hit" apparently for 
" the effect and it " (the purpose), — although the mis- 
print, if it be one, is repeated in the Second Folio, and is, 
as far as we can gather from Mr Collier, left uncorrected 
by his MS. annotator. It is even defended as probably 
the true reading by Tieck. It cannot, at any rate, be 
received as merely a different way of spelling it, deliber- 
ately adopted in this instance and nowhere else through- 
out the volume : such a view of the matter is the very 
Quixotism of the belief in the immaculate purity of the 
old text. 

209. You have some sick offence. — Some pain, or grief, 
that makes you sick. 

209. By the right and virtue of my place. — By the 
right that belongs to, and (as we now say) in virtue of 
(that is by the power or natural prerogative of) my place 
(as your wife) . The radical meaning of the term virtue, 
connected with vis, and perhaps also with vireo, and with 
vir, is force (which word itself, indeed, with its Latin 
progenitor fortis, may possibly be from the same root) . 
The old spelling of the English word, and that which it 
has here in the First Folio, is vertue, as we still have it 
in the French vertu. 



SC. 1.] JrLITTS CJSSAB. 173 

209. I charm you. — Charm (or charme) is the reading 
of all the old printed copies, and Mr Collier tells us of no 
correction by his MS. annotator. Pope substituted charge, 
which was adopted also by Hanmer. It must be con- 
fessed that the only instance which has been referred U 
in support of charm is not satisfactory. It is adduced 
by Steevens from Cymbeline, i. 7, where Iachimo says to 
Imogen, — 

" ' Tis your graces 

That from my mutest conscience to my tongue 

Charms this report out." 

This is merely the common application of the verb to 
charm in the sense of to produce any kind of effect as it 
were by incantation. Charm is no doubt a derivative 
from carmen, as incantation or enchantment is from cano. 
In the passage before us, I charm you (if such be the 
reading) must mean I adjure or conjure you. Spenser 
uses charm with a meaning which it does not now retain ; 
as when he says in his Shepherd's Kalendar (October, 118), 
" Here we our slender pipes may safely charm," and, in 
the beginning of his Colin Clout's Come Home Again, 
speaks of " charming his oaten pipe unto his peers," that 
is, playing or modulating (not uttering musical sounds, 
as explained by JN^ares, but making to utter them) . Still 
more peculiar is the application of the word by Marvel 
in a short poem entitled " The Picture of T. C. in a Pros- 
pect of Plowers ;" — 

" Meanwhile, whilst every verdant thing 
Itself does at thy beauty charm ;" — 

that is, apparently, delights itself in contemplating thy 
beauty. We do not now use this verb thus reflectively 
at all. There seems, however, to have been formerly a 
latitude in the application of it which may possibly have 
extended to such a sense as that which must be assigned 
to it if it was really the word here employed by Portia. — 
Two stage directions are added here by Mr Collier's MS. 



174 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

annotator : — " Kneeling" where Portia says " Upon my 
knees I charm you;" and "Raising her" at 210. 

211. But, as it were, in sort, or limitation. — Only in a 
manner, in a degree, in some qualified or limited sense. 
We still say in a sort. 

211. To keep with you, etc. — To keep company with 
you. To keep in the sense of to live or dwell is of con- 
stant occurrence in our old writers ; and Nares observes 
that they still say in the University of Cambridge, "Where 
do you keep ? I keep in such a set of chambers. We 
sometimes hear it asserted that the word comfort, as well 
as the thing, is exclusively English. But it is also an old 
Trench word, though bearing rather the sense of our law 
term to comfort, which is to relieve, assist, or encourage. 
And it exists, also, both in the Italian and in the Spanish. 
Its origin is an ecclesiastical Latin verb conforto (from 
con and fortis), meaning to strengthen. 

211. And talk to you sometimes, etc. — The true proso- 
dical view of this line is to regard the two combinations 
"to you" and "in the" as counting each for only a single 
syllable. It is no more an Alexandrine than it is an 
hexameter. 

213. Being so fathered, and so husbanded. — We have 
here two exemplifications of the remarkable power which 
our language possesses (though a consequence of its po- 
verty of inflection, or of the loss of their distinctive ter- 
minations by the infinitive and present indicative of the 
verb) of turning almost any noun, upon occasion, into a 
verb. It may be called its most kingly prerogative, and 
may be compared to the right of ennobling exercised by 
the crown in our political constitution, — the more, inas- 
much as words too, as well as men, were originally, it is 
probable, all of equal rank, and the same word served 
universally as noun at one time and as verb at another. 
Most of our verbs that are of purely English or Gothic 
descent are still in their simplest form undistinguishable 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^SAR. 175 

from nouns. The noun and the verb might be exhibited 
together in one system of inflection ; father, for instance, 
might be at once declined and conjugated, through fa- 
thered, and fathering, and have fathered, and will father, 
and all the other moods and tenses, as well as through 
fathers and father's, and of a father, and to a father, and 
the other so called nominal changes. It is to this their 
identity of form with the noun that our English verbs 
owe in a great measure their peculiar force and liveliness 
of expression, consisting as that does in their power of 
setting before us, not merely the fact that something has 
been done or is doing, but the act or process itself as a 
concrete thing or picture. Shakespeare in particular 
freely employs any noun whatever as a verb. 

It is interesting to note the germ of what we have here 
in The Merchant of Venice (i. 2) : — 

(i Her name is Portia ; nothing undervalued 
To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia." 

The Merchant of Venice had certainly been written by 
1598. 

213. I have made strong proof — The prosody concurs 
here with the sense in demanding a strong emphasis upon 
the word strong. 

214. All the charactery. — All that is charactered or 
expressed by my saddened aspect. The word, which occurs 
also in the Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 5, is accented on 
the second syllable there as well as here. And no doubt 
this was also the original, as it is still the vulgar, accent- 
uation of character. Shakespeare, however, always accents 
that word on the char-, as we do, whether he uses it as a 
noun or as a verb ; though a doubt may be entertained as 
to the pronunciation of the participial form both in the 
line, "Are visibly charactered and engraved," in The Two 
Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 7, and in the " Show me one 
scar charactered on the skin" of the Second Part of King 



178 PHILOLOGICAL COMMKKTABY. [ACT II. 

Henry the Sixth, Hi. 1, as well as with regard to that of 
the compound which occurs in Troilus and Cressida, 
Hi, 2, — 

" And mighty states characterless are grated 
To dusty nothing." 

— The stage direction near the beginning of this speech 
is merely Knock in the original edition. 

214. Lucius, who's that knocks ? — Who is that who 
knocks ? The omission of the relative is a familiar ellipsis. 
Vid. 34. Who's, and not who is, is the reading of all the 
Polios. It is unnecessary to suppose that the two broken 
lines were intended to make a whole between them. 
They are best regarded as distinct hemistichs. Mr Col- 
lier, however, prints " Who is't that knocks ?" Does he 
follow his MS. annotator in this ? 

217. The Lig. (for Ligarius) is Cai. throughout in the 
original text. The authority for the prsenomen Caius, 
by which Ligarius is distinguished throughout the Play, 
is Plutarch, in his Life of Brutus, towards the beginning. 

218. To wear a kerchief, — Kerchief is cover-chief the 
chief being the French chef head (from the Latin Cap-ut, 
which is also the same word with the English Head and 
the Grerman Haupf). But, the proper import of chief 
being forgotten or neglected, the name kerchief came to 
be given to any cloth used as a piece of dress. In this 
sense the word is still familiar in handkerchief, though 
both kerchief itself and its other compound neckerchief 
are nearly gone out. In King John, iv. 1, and also in As 
You Like It, iv. 3 and v. 2, the word in the early editions 
is handhercJier ; and this is likewise the form in the 
Quarto edition of Othello. 

218. Would you were not sick ! — I do not understand 
upon what principle, or in what notion, it is that the 
Shakespearian editors print would in such a construction 
as this with an apostrophe (^ Would). Even if it is to be 
taken to mean I would, the / will not be a part of the 



SG. 1.] JULIUS C^ESAE. 177 

word which has heen cut off, like the i of it in the con- 
traction His. 

221. Thou, like an exorcist. — "Here," says Mason, 
" and in all other places where the word occurs in Shake- 
speare, to exorcise means to raise spirits, not to lay them ; 
and I believe he is singular in his acceptation of it." The 
only other instances of its occurrence, according to Mrs 
Clarke, are ; — in the Song in Cymbeline, iv. 2 : — 

" No exorciser harm thee ! 
Nor no witchcraft charm thee ! 
Ghost unlaid forbear thee ! 
Nothing ill come near thee!" 

in AIVs Well that Ends Well, v. 3, where, on the ap- 
pearance of Helena, thought to be dead, the King ex- 
claims, 

" Is there no exorcist 
Beguiles the truer office of mine eyes ? " 

and in the Second Fart of King Henry the Sixth, i. 4, 
where Eolingbroke asks, " "Will her ladyship [the Duchess 
of Gloster] behold and hear our exorcisms?" meaning 
the incantations and other operations by which they were 
to raise certain spirits. — In Mr Collier's regulated text, 
in this speech, at the words " Soul of Rome," we have the 
stage direction, " Throwing away his bandage." 

221. My mortified spirit. — Mor-ti-fi-ed here makes four 
syllables, spirit counting for only one. And mortified has 
its literal meaning of deadened. 

224i. As we are going To ivhom it must be done. — While 
we are on our way to those whom it must be done to. 
The ellipsis is the same as we have in 105, " From that it 
is disposed." I do not understand how the words are to 
be interpreted if we are to separate going from what fol- 
lows by a comma, as is done in most editions. 

225. Set on your foot. — This was probably a somewhat 
energetic or emphatic mode of expression. In Scotland 
they say, " Put down your foot" in exhorting one to walk 



178 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

on briskly. — At the end of this speech the old copies 
have Thunder as a stage direction. 



SCENE II. — The same. A Room in Cesar's Palace. 
Thunder and Lightning. Enter C^isar in his night-gown. 

227. Cces. Nor heaven, nor earth, have been at peace to-night : 
Thrice hath Calphurnia in her sleep cried out, 
Help, ho! they murder Ccesar ! — Who's within? 

Enter a Servant. 
Serv. My lord ? 
229. Cces. Go bid the priests do present sacrifice, 
And bring me their opinions of success. 
Serv. I will, my lord. [Exit. 

Enter Calphurnia. 

Cal. What mean you, Caesar ? Think you to walk forth i 
You shall not stir out of your house to-day. 

Cces. Caesar shall forth : The things that threatened me 
Ne'er looked but on my back ; when they shall see 
The face of Caesar, they are vanished. 

233. Cal. Csesar, I never stood on ceremonies, 
Yet now they fright me. There is one within, 
Besides the things that we have heard and seen, 
Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch. 
A lioness hath whelped in the streets ; 

And graves have yawned, and yielded up their dead ; 

Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds, 

In ranks and squadrons, and right form of war, 

Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol : 

The noise of battle hurtled in the air, 

Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan ; 

And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets. 

Caesar ! these things are beyond all use, 

And I do fear them. 

234. Cces. What can be avoided, 

Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods ? 
Yet Caesar shall go forth ; for these predictions 
Are to the world in general, as to Caesar. 

Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets seen ; 
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes 
236. Cces. Cowards die many times before their deaths \ 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CAESAR. • 179 

The valiant never taste of death, but once. 

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, 

It seems to me most strange that men should fear ; 

Seeing that death, a necessary end, 

"Will come, when it will come. 

Be -enter a Servant. 
What say the augur ers ? 

Serv. They would not have you to stir forth to-day. 
Plucking the entrails of an offering forth, 
They could not find a heart within the beast. 

238. Cces. The gods do this in shame of cowardice : 
Caesar should be a beast without a heart, 

If he should stay at home to-day for fear. 
No, Caesar shall not ; Danger knows full well 
That Caesar is more dangerous than he. 
We are two lions littered in one day, 
And I the elder and more terrible ; 
And Caesar shall go forth. 

239. Col. Alas, my lord, 

Your wisdom is consumed in confidence. 
Do not go forth to-day : Call it my fear, 
That keeps you in the house, and not your own. 
We'll send Mark Antony to the senate-house ; 
And he shall say, you are not well to-day : 
Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this. 

240. Cces. Mark Antony shall say, I am not well ; 
And, for thy humour, I will stay at home. 

Enter Decius. 
Here's Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so. 

241. Bee. Caesar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy Caesar: 
I come to fetch you to the senate-house. 

242. Cces. And you are come in very happy time 
To bear my greeting to the senators, 

And tell them, that I will not come to-day : 
Cannot, is false ; and that I dare not, falser : 
I will not come to-day : Tell them so, Decius. 
Cal. Say, he is sick. 
244. Cces. Shall Caesar send a lie ? 

Have I in conquest stretched mine arm so far 
To be afeared to tell grey-beards the truth ? 
Decius, go tell them, Caesar will not come. 
Dec. Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause, 
N 2 



180 % PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

Lest I be laughed at when I tell them so. 

245. Ccbs. The cause is in my will, I will not come ; 
That is enough to satisfy the senate. 

But, for your private satisfaction, 
Because I love you, I will let you know. 
Calphurnia here, my wife, stays me at home : 
She dreamt to-night she saw my statue, 
Which like a fountain, with an hundred spouts, 
Did run pure blood ; and many lusty Romans 
Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it. 
And these does she apply for warnings and portents 
Of evils imminent ; and on her knee 
Hath begged, that I will stay at home to-day. 

246. Dec. This dream is all amiss interpreted : 
It was a vision fair and fortunate : 

Your statue spouting blood in many pipes, 
In which so many smiling Romans bathed, 
Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck 
Reviving blood ; and that great men shall press 
For tinctures, stains, relics, and cognizance. 
This by Calphurnia' s dream is signified. 
Cces. And this way have you well expounded it. 

249. Dec. I have, when you have heard what I can say : 
And know it now ; The senate have concluded 

To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar. 

If you shall send them word you will not come, 

Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock 

Apt to be rendered, for some one to say, 

Break up the senate till another time, 

When C Cesar's wife shall meet with better dreams. 

If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper, 

Lo, Ccesar is afraid f 

Pardon me, Caesar ; for my dear, dear love 

To your proceeding bids me tell you this ; 

And reason to my love is liable. 

250. Cces. How foolish do your fears seem now, Calphurnia ! 
I am ashamed I did yield to them. — 

Give me my robe, for I will go : — 

Enter Ptjblius, Brutus, Ligarius, Metellus, Casca, Trebonius, 
and Cinna. 

And look where Publius is come to fetch me. 
Pub. Good morrow, Caesar. 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CiESAB. 181 

252. Cces. Welcome, Publius. — 

What, Brutus, are you stirred so early too ? — 
Good morrow, Casca.— Caius Ligarius, 
Caesar was ne'er so much your enemy, 
As that same ague which hath made you lean.— 
What is't o'clock ? 

253. Bru. Caesar, 'tis strucken eight. 

254. Cces. I thank you for your pains and courtesy. 

Enter Antony 
See ! Antony, that revels long o' nights, 
Is, notwithstanding, up : — 
Good morrow, Antony. 
Ant So to most noble Caesar. 
256. Cces. Bid them prepare within : — 
I am to blame to be thus waited for. — 
Now, China : — Now, Metellus : — What, Trebonius ! 
I have an hour's talk in store for you. 
Eemember that you call on me to-day : 
Be near me, that I may remember you. 

Treb. Caesar, I will : — and so near will I be, 
That your best friends shall wish I had been farther. [Aside. 

Cces. Good friends, go in, and taste some wine with me ; 
And we, like friends, will straightway go together. 
259. Bru. That every like is not the same, Caesar, 

The heart of Brutus yearns to think upon! [Aside. Exeunt. 

Scene II. Tlze same. A Room in Ccesar's Palace. — 
This is not in the old editions ; but the stage direction 
that follows is, only with Julius Ccesar (for Ccesar) . 

227. JVbr heaven nor earth, etc. — This use of nor . . . 
nor for the usual neither . . . nor of prose (as well as of 
or . . . or for either . . . or) is still common in our poetry. 
On the other hand, either was sometimes used formerly 
in cases where we now always have or ; as in Luke vi. 
42 : — " Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy 
brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine 
own eye? Either how canst thou say to thy brother, 
Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, 
when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine 
own eye ? " — The strict grammatical principle would of 



182 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

course require " has been at peace ; " but where, as here, 
the two singular substantives are looked at together by the 
mind, it is more natural to regard them as making a plu- 
rality, and to use the plural verb, notwithstanding the dis- 
junctive conjunction (as it is sometimes oddly designated). 

229. Do present sacrifice. — In this and a good many 
other cases we are now obliged to employ a verb of a 
more specific character instead of the general do. This 
is a different kind of archaism from what we have in the 
" do danger " of 147, where it is not the do, but the danger, 
that has a meaning which it has now lost, and for which 
the modern language uses another word. 

229. Their opinions of success. — That is, merely, of the 
issue, or of what is prognosticated by the sacrifice as likely 
to happen. Johnson remarks (note on Othello, Hi. 3) 
that successo is also so used in Italian. So likewise is 
sacces in French. In addition to earlier examples of such 
a sense of the English word, Boswell adduces from Sidney's 
Arcadia : — " He never answered me, but, pale and quak- 
ing, went straight away ; and straight my heart misgave 
me some evil success ; " and from Dr Barrow, in the latter 
part of the seventeenth century : — " Tea, to a person so 
disposed, that success which seemeth most adverse justly 
may be reputed the best and most happy." Shakespeare's 
ordinary employment of the word, however, is accordant 
with our present usage. But see 735, 736. Sometimes 
it is used in the sense of our modern succession ; as in A 
Winter's Tale, i. 2: — "Our parents' noble names, In 
whose success we are gentle." In the same manner the 
verb to succeed, though meaning etymologically no more 
than to follow, has come to be commonly understood, 
when used without qualification, only in a good sense. 
"We still say that George II. succeeded George L, and 
could even, perhaps, say that a person or thing had suc- 
ceeded very ill : but when we say simply, that any thing 
has succeeded, we mean that it has had a prosperous issue. 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C-ESAB. 183 

Shakespeare's use of the word success may be further 
illustrated by the following examples : — 

" Is your blood 
So madly hot, that no discourse of reason, 
Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause, 
Can qualify the same ?" — Troil. and Cress., it. 2 ; 

" Commend me to my brother : soon at night 
I'll send him certain word of my success." 

Meas. for Meets., i. 5 ; 

" Let this be so, and doubt not but success 
"Will fashion the event in better shape 
Than I can lay it down in likelihood." 

Much Ado About Noth., iv. 1 ; 

" And so success of mischief shall be born, 
And heir from heir shall hold this quarrel up." 

Second Part of Henry IV., iv. 2 ; 

" Should you do so, my lord, 
My speech should fall into such vile success 
"Which my thoughts aimed not." — Othello, Hi. 3. 

233. I never stood on ceremonies. — Vid. 194. 

233. Recounts most horrid sights. — "Who recounts. As 
in 34 and 214. 

233. Which drizzled blood. — To drizzle is to shed (or 
to fall) in small drops. The Dictionaries bring it from 
the German rieseln (of the same signification) ; but the 
English word probably derives a main part of its peculiar 
effect from the same initial dr which we have in drip, 
drop, drivel, etc. 

233. The noise of battle hurtled in the air. — The three 
last E olios substitute hurried for hurtled. Hurtle is pro- 
bably the same word with hurl (of which, again, whirl 
may be another variation) . Chaucer uses it as an active 
verb in the sense of to push forcibly and with violence ; 
as in C. T. 2618 :— 

" And he him hurtleth with his hors adoun ; " 
and again in C. T. 4717 :-— 



184 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEKTAET. [ACT II. 

"0 firste moving cruel firmament! 
"With thy diurnal swegh that croudest ay, 
And hurtlest all from est til Occident, 
That naturally wold hold another way." 

Its very sound makes it an expressive word for any kind 
of rude and crushing, or " insupportably advancing." 
movement. Hustle and justle (or jostle) may be con- 
sidered, if not as other forms, or somewhat softened mo- 
difications, of the same vocal utterance of thought, as at 
least fashioned upon the same principle. 

233. Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan. — This 
is the reading of the Second and subsequent Folios. The 
First has " Horses do neigh, and dying men did grone." 
We may confidently affirm that no degree of mental agi- 
tation ever expressed itself in any human being in such 
a jumble and confusion of tenses as this, — not even insan- 
ity or drunkenness. The "Fierce fiery warriors fight 
upon the clouds,'* which we have a few lines before, is 
not a case in point. It is perfectly natural in animated 
narrative or description to rise occasionally from the past 
tense to the present ; but who ever heard of two facts or 
circumstances equally past, strung together, as here, with 
an and, and enunciated in the same breath, being pre- 
sented the one as now going on, the other as only having 
taken place ? Mr Collier's MS. annotator, it is to be pre- 
sumed, approves or accepts the " did neigh " of the Second 
Folio. 

233. And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets. 
— It is rare to find Shakespeare coming so near upon the 
same words in two places as he does here and in dealing 
with the same subject in Hamlet, i. 1 : — 

" In the most high and palmy state of Rome, 
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, 
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead 
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets." 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C-ESAK. 185 

This passage, however, is found only in the Quarto 
editions of Hamlet, and is omitted in all the Folios. 

233. Beyond all use. — We might still say "beyond all 
use and wont." 

234. Whose end is purposed, etc. — The end, or comple- 
tion, of which is designed by the gods. 

236. What say the augurers ? — Vid. 194. — The preced- 
ing stage direction is in the original edition, " Enter a 
Servant." 

238. In shame of cowardice. — For the shame of coward- 
ice, to put cowardice to shame. 

238. Ccesar should he a least. — We should now say 
Caesar would be a beast. It is the same use of shall where 
we now use will that has been noticed at 181. So in 
Merchant of Venice, i. 2, jS"erissa, conversing with her 
mistress Portia about her German suitor, the nephew of 
the Duke of Saxony, says, " If he should offer to choose, 
and choose the right casket, you should refuse to perform 
your father's will if you should refuse to accept him." 
Yet the fashion of saying It should appear, or It should 
seem (instead of It would), which has come up with the 
revived study of our old literature, is equally at variance 
with the principle by which our modern employment of 
shall and will is regulated. 

238. We are two lions. — The old reading, in all the 
Polios, is We heare (or hear in the Third and Fourth). 
]S"obody, as far as I am aware, has defended it, or affected 
to be able to make any sense of it. Theobald proposed 
We were, which has been generally adopted. But We 
are, as recommended by Upton, is at once nearer to the 
original and much more spirited. It is a singularly happy 
restoration, and one in regard to which, I conceive, there 
can scarcely be the shadow of a doubt. It is, however, 
confirmed, if it needed any confirmation, by its being 
found among the corrections of Mr Collier's MS. anno- 
tator. 



136 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

239. Is consumed in confidence. — As anything is con- 
sumed in fire. 

240. For thy humour. — For the gratification of thy 
whim or caprice. Vid. 205. Mr Collier's MS. annotator 
directs that Caesar should here raise Calphurnia, as he 
had that she should deliver the last line of her preceding 
speech kneeling. 

241. Ccesar, all hail ! — Sail in this sense is the Original 
English hael or hell, meaning hale, whole, or healthy (the 
modern German heil). It ought rather to be spelled 
hale. Hail, frozen rain, is from haegl, haegel, otherwise 
hagol, hagul, or haegol (in modern German hageT). 

242. To hear my greeting. — To greet in this sense is the 
Original English gretan, to go to meet, to welcome, to 
salute (the grussen of the modern German) . The greet 
of the Scotch and other northern dialects, which is found 
in Spenser, represents quite another verb of the old lan- 
guage, greotan, or graetan, to lament, apparently the same 
root which we have in the Erench regret and the Italian 
regretto, as well as in our own regret (obtained immediately 
from the Erench). 

244. To be of ear d. — The common Scotch form for afraid 
is still feared, or fear d, from the verb to fear, taken in the 
sense of to make afraid ; in which sense it is sometimes 
found in Shakespeare ; as in Measure for Measure, ii. 1 : — 

" We must not make a scarecrow of the law, 
Setting it np to fear the beasts of prey ; " 

And in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 6 : — 

" Thou canst not fear us, Pompey, with thy sails." 

In The Taming of the Shrew, i. 2, we have in a single 
line (or two hemistichs) both senses of the verb to fear : 
— "Tush! tush! fear boys with bugs," says Petrucio in 
scorn ; to which his servant Grumio rejoins, aside, " Eor 
he fears none." 

246. That is enough to satisfy the senate. — Not (as the 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C^SAK. 187 

words might in other circumstances mean) enough to 
ensure their being satisfied, but enough for me to do to- 
wards that end. 

216. She dreamt to-night slie saw my statue. — It maybe 
mentioned that both Boweand Pope substitute last night, 
which would, indeed, seem to be the most natural expres- 
sion; but it is unsupported by any of the old copies. — 
The word statue is of frequent occurrence in Shakespeare ; 
and in general it is undoubtedly only a dissyllable. In 
the present Play, for instance, in the very next speech 
we have 

" Tour statue spouting blood in many pipes." 

And so likewise in 138, and again in 378. Only in one 
line, which occurs in 'Richard the Third, Hi. 7, 

" But like dumb statues or breathing stones," 

is it absolutely necessary that it should be regarded as of 
three syllables, if the received reading be correct. In 
that passage also, however, as in every other, the word in 
the Pirst Polio is printed simply statues, exactly as it al- 
ways is in the English which we now write and speak. 

On the other hand, it is certain that statue was fre- 
quently written statua in Shakespeare's age ; Bacon, for 
example, always, I believe, so writes it ; and it is not im- 
possible that its fall pronunciation may have been always 
trisyllabic, and that it became a dissyllable only by the 
two short vowels, as in other cases, being run together so 
as to count prosodically only for one. 

"Prom authors of the times," says Peed, in a note on 
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 4, " it would not be 
difficult to fill whole pages with instances to prove that 
statue was at that period a trisyllable. " But unfortun- 
ately he does not favour us with one such instance. Nor, 
with the exception of the single line in 'Richard the Third, 
the received reading of which has been suspected for an- 



188 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTAEY. [ACT II. 

other reason {breathing stones being not improbably, it 
has been thought, a misprint for unbreatlring stones), has 
any decisive instance been produced either by Steevens, 
who refers at that passage to what he designates as Reed's 
" very decisive note," or by any of the other commenta- 
tors anywhere, or by jNares, who also commences his ac- 
count of the word in his Glossary by telling us that it 
"was long used in English as a trisyllable." 

The only other lines in Shakespeare in which it has 
been conceived to be other than a word of two syllables 
are the one now under examination, and another which 
also occurs in the present Play, in 426 : — 
" Even at the base of Pompey's statue." 

These two lines, it will be observed, are similarly con- 
structed in so far as this word is concerned ; in both the 
supposed trisyllable concludes the verse. 

Now, we have many verses terminated in exactly the 
same manner by other words, and yet it is very far from 
being certain that such verses were intended to be ac- 
counted verses often syllables, or were ever so pronounced. 

First, there is the whole class of those ending with 
words in Hon or sion. This termination, it is true, usually 
makes two syllables in Chaucer, and it may do so some- 
times, though it does not generally, in Spenser ; it is fre- 
quently dissyllabic, in indisputable instances, even with 
some of the dramatists of the early part of the seventeenth 
century, and particularly with Beaumont and Fletcher ; 
but it is only on the rarest occasions that it is other than 
monosyllabic in the middle of the line with Shakespeare. 
Is it, then, to be supposed that he employed it habitually 
as a dissyllable at the end of a line ? It is of continual 
occurrence in both positions. For example, in the follow- 
ing line of the present speech, — 

" But for your private satisfaction,"— 
can we think that the concluding word was intended to 



sc. 2.] jrLrus c^sae. 189 

have any different pronunciation from that which it has 
in the line of Romeo and Juliet (ii. 2), — 

" "What satisfaction canst thon have to-night ?" 

or in this other from Othello (Hi. 3),— 

u But for a satisfaction of my thought ? " 

Is it probable that it was customary then, any more than 
it is now, to divide tion into two syllables in the one case 
more than in the other ? 

Secondly, there are numerous verses terminating with 
the verbal affix ed, the sign of the preterite indicative 
active or of the past participle passive. This termination 
is not circumstanced exactly as tion is : the utterance of 
it as a separate syllable is the rare exception in our mo- 
dern pronunciation ; but it evidently was not so in Shake- 
speare's day ; the distinct syllabication of the ed would 
rather seem to have been almost as common then as its 
absorption in the preceding syllable. For instance, when 
Juliet, in Borneo and Juliet, Hi. 2, repeating the Xurse's 
words, exclaims, 

" Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banished : 
That banished — that one word banished — 
Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts," 

the ed in That banished clearly makes a distinct syllable ; 
and, that being the case, it must be held to be equally 
such in the two other repetitions of the word. But in 
other cases its coalescence with the preceding syllable will 
only produce the same effect to which we are accustomed 
when we disregard the antiquated pronunciation of the 
tion at the end of a line, and read it as one syllable. In 
the present Play, for example, it might be so read in 
305,— 

" Thy brother by decree is banished ; " — 

as it was probably intended (in another prosodical posi- 
tion) to be read afterwards in 310, — 



190 PHILOLOGICAL C0MME1STAKY. [ACT TT, 

" That I was constant Cimber should be banished," 

and as it must be read in 306, — 

" For the repealing of my banished brother." 

Yet, although most readers in the present day would elide 
the e in all the three instances, it ought to be observed 
that in the original edition the word is printed in full in 
the first and with the apostrophe in the two others. And 
this distinction in the printing is employed to indicate 
the pronunciation throughout the volume. How such a 
line as 

" Thy brother by decree is banished," — 

being a very common prosodical form in Shakespeare, — 
was intended by him to be read, or was commonly read in 
his day, must therefore remain somewhat doubtful. If, 
however, the e was elided in the pronunciation, such verses 
would be prosodically exactly of the same form or struc- 
ture with those, also of very frequent occurrence, in which 
all that we have for a fifth foot is the affix or termination 
tion, on the assumption that that was pronounced only as 
one syllable. 

One way of disposing of such lines would be to regard 
them as a species of hemistich or truncated line. Verses 
which, although not completed, are correctly constructed 
as far as they go, occur in every Play in great numbers 
and of all dimensions ; and those in question would be 
such verses wanting the last syllable, as others do the two 
or three or four or five last. This explanation would take 
in the case of the lines, " She dreamt to-night she saw my 
statue," and " Even at the base of Pompey's statue," and 
of others similarly constructed, supposing statue to be 
only a dissyllable, as well as all those having in the last 
foot only Hon or ed. But most probably this particular 
kind of truncated line, consisting of nine syllables, would 
not occur so frequently as it does but for the influence 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C^SAE. 191 

exerted by the memory of the old pronunciation of the 
two terminations just mentioned even after it had come 
to be universally or generally disused. Eor instance, al- 
though the word satisfaction had already come in the age 
of Shakespeare to be generally pronounced exactly as it 
is at the present day, the line " But for your private satis- 
faction" was the more readily accepted as a sufficient 
verse by reason of the old syllabication of the word, which, 
even by those who had abandoned it (as Shakespeare 
himself evidently had done), was not forgotten. Other 
lines having nothing more for their tenth syllable than 
the verbal affix ed, in which also an elision had become 
usual, would be acted upon in the same manner ; the ed 
would still retain something of the effect of a separate 
syllable even when it had ceased to be generally so pro- 
nounced. Eut after the public ear had thus become re- 
conciled and accustomed to such a form of verse, it might 
be expected to be sometimes indulged in by poetic writers 
when it had to be produced in another way than through 
the instrumentality of the half separable ed and the half 
dissyllabic Hon. The line " But for your private satisfac- 
tion," pronounced as we have assumed it to have been, 
would make such a line as " She dreamt to-night she saw 
my statue" seem to have an equal right to be accounted 
legitimate, seeing that its effect upon the ear was precisely 
the same. Still the conservative principle in language 
would keep the later and more decided deviation from the 
normal form comparatively infrequent. Sometimes a 
singular effect of suddenness and abruptness is produced 
by such a form of verse ; as in the sharp appeal of Mene- 
nius, in the opening scene of Coriolanus, to the loud and 
grandiloquent leader of the mutinous citizens, — 

" What do you think. 
You, the great toe of this assembly ? " 

Unless, indeed, we are to assume the verse here to be 



192 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

complete and regular, and that assembly is to be read as 
a word of four syllables, as-sem-bl-y. In the present Play, 
however, at 295, we have an instance to which that objec- 
tion does not apply. The line there — "Look, how he 
makes to Caesar : mark him " — is of precisely the same 
rhythm with " She dreamt to-night she saw my statue," 
and also with the one by which it is immediately preceded, 
— " I fear our purpose is discovered " (in 294), as well as 
with "He says he does; being then most flattered" (in 
195), and many others, read (as it is probable they were 
intended to be) without the distinct syllabication of the ed. 
After all, Shakespeare's word may really have been 
statua, as Eeed and Steevens suppose. This is decidedly 
the opinion of Mr Dyce, who, in his Remarks on Mr 
Collier's and Mr Knighfs editions {p. 186), calls attention 
to the following line from a copy of verses by J ohn Harris, 
prefixed to the 1647 Folio of the Plays of Beaumont and 
F] etcher; — 

" Defaced statua and martyr' d book." 

" I therefore have not," he adds, " the slightest doubt 
that wherever statue occurs, while the metre requires 
three syllables, it is a typographical error for statua''' 
Perhaps the best way would be to print statua in all cases, 
and to assume that that was the form which Shakespeare 
always wrote. Statua would have the prosodical value 
either of a dissyllable or of a trisyllable according to cir- 
cumstances, just as Mantua, for instance, has throughout 
Momeo and Juliet, where we have in one place such a 
line as 

" For then thou canst not pass to Mantu-a " (in. 3), 
or 

" But I will write again to Mantu-a" (v. 2), 

and in another such as 

" Sojourn in Mantua ; I'll find out your man " {Hi. 3), 
or 

" So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed " (v. 2). 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CJESAB. 193 

We have a rare example of the termination -tion forming 
a dissyllable with Shakespeare in the middle of a line in 
Jaques's description of the Fool Touchstone (As You 
Like It, ii. 2) : — 

"He hath, strange places cram Tried 
With observation, the which he vents 
In mangled forms." 

This may be compared with the similar prolongation of 
the -trance in the sublime chant of Lady Macbeth (Mac- 
beth, i. 5) : — 

" The raven himself is hoarse 
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 
Under my battlements ; " — 

or with what we have in the following line in The Two 
Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 4, 

" And that hath dazzled my reason's light ; " 

or with this in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hi. 2, — 

" me ! yon juggler I you canker-blossom.' ' 

The name Henry, in like manner, occasionally occurs as 
a trisyllable both in the three Parts of Henry VI., and 
also in Hi chard III. 

The following are examples of what is much more com- 
mon, the extension or division of similar combinations at 
the end of a line : — 

" The parts and graces of the wrestler." 

As You Like It, ii. 2 ; 

"And lasting, in her sad remembrance." 

Twelfth Night, i. 1 ; 

" The like of him. Enow'st thou this country ? " 

Ibid., i. 3 ; 
" Which is as bad as die with tickling." 

Much Ado About Noth., Hi. 1 - 
" 0, how this spring of love resembleth." 

Two Gent, of Ver., i. 3 ; 



J94 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

"And these two DTomios, one in semblance." 
Com. of Err. i. 1 ; 

" These are the parents to these children." — Ibid. 

" Fair sir, and yon my merry mistress." 

Tarn, of Shrew, iv. 5. 

In other cases, however, the line must apparently be held 
to be a regular hemistich (or truncated verse) of nine 
syllables ; as in 

" Of our dear sonls. Meantime sweet sister." 

Twelfth Night, v. 1 ; 

"I'll follow you and tell what answer." 

Third Part of Henry VI., iv. 3. 

" Be valued 'gainst your wife's commandment." 
Mer. of Ven., iv. 1. 

Unless, indeed, in this last instance we ought not to read 
commandement (in four syllables), as Spenser occasionally 
has it ; although I am not aware of the occurrence of such 
a form of the word elsewhere in Shakespeare. 

246. Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts. — 
This is the reading of both the First and Second Folio. 
Mr Collier, however, has "a hundred." 

246. And these does she apply for warnings and portents. 
— This is the reading of all the Folios. It is not quite 
satisfactory ; and the suspected corruption has been at- 
tempted to be cured in various ways. Shakespeare's ha- 
bitual accentuation of portent seems to have been on the 
last syllable. If the passage were in any one of cer- 
tain others of the Plays, I should be inclined to arrange 
the lines as follows : — 

" And these does she apply for warnings and 
Portents of evils imminent ; and on her knee 
Hath begged that I will stay at home to-day." 

The crowding of short syllables which this would occasion 
in the second line is much less harsh and awkward than 
what the received arrangement produces in the first. But 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C-ESAR. 195 

so slight a monosyllable as and in the tenth place would 
give ns a structure of verse of which, although common 
in several of the other Plays, we have no example in this. 
See Prolegomena, sect. vi. 

246. Of evils imminent. — This conjectural emendation, 
which appears to be Warburton's, had long been generally 
accepted ; but it has now the authority of Mr Collier's 
manuscript annotator. The reading in all the old copies 
is "And evils." 

247. For tinctures, etc. — Tinctures and stains are un- 
derstood both by Malone and Steevens as carrying an 
allusion to the practice of persons dipping their handker- 
chiefs in the blood of those whom they regarded as martyrs. 
And it must be confessed that the general strain of the 
passage, and more especially the expression " shall press 
for tinctures," etc., will not easily allow us to reject this 
interpretation. Yet does it not make the speaker assign 
to Caesar by implication the very kind of death Calphur- 
nia's apprehension of which he professes to regard as 
visionary? The pressing for tinctures and stains, it is 
true, would be a confutation of so much of Calphurnia's 
dream as seemed to imply that the Eoman people would 
be delighted with his death, — 

" Many lusty Romans 
Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it." 

Do we refine too much in supposing that this inconsist- 
ency between the purpose and the language of Decius is 
intended by the poet, and that in this brief dialogue be- 
tween him and Caesar, in which the latter suffers himself 
to be so easily won over, — persuaded and relieved by the 
very words that ought naturally to have confirmed his 
fears, — we are to feel the presence of an unseen power 
driving on both the unconscious prophet and the blinded 
victim? Compare 10%. 

Johnson takes both tinctures and cognizance in the 
heraldic sense as meaning distinctive marks of honour 

o 2 



198 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

and armorial bearings (in part denoted by colours). But 
the stains and relics are not so easily to be accounted for 
on this supposition ; neither would it be very natural to 
say that men should press to secure such distinctions. 
The speech altogether Johnson characterizes as "inten- 
tionally pompous " and " somewhat confused." 

249. The senate have concluded. — To conclude, for to 
resolve, is one of numerous expressions, which, although 
no longer used, are nevertheless almost as universally in- 
telligible as ever. They are the veterans, or emeriti, of the 
language, whose regular active service is over, but who 
still exist as a reserve force, or retired list, which may 
always be called out on special occasions. 

249. Apt to he rendered. — Easy and likely to be thrown 
out in return or retaliation for your refusing to come. 

249. Shall they not whisper? — We should now say 
" Will they not ? " Vid. 238. 

249. To your proceeding. — To your advancement. So 
in Grloster's protestation, in Rich. III. iv. 4, — ■ 

" Be opposite all planets of good luck 
To my proceeding ! if with, dear heart's love, 
Immaculate devotion, holy thoughts, 
I tender not thy beauteous princely daughter ; " 

that is, to my prospering, as we should now say. 

249. And reason to my love is liable. — As if he had said, 
And, if I have acted wrong in telling you, my excuse is, 
that my reason where you are concerned is subject to 
and is overborne by my affection. Vid. 67. 

250. In the original stage direction the name of Tub- 
lius stands last, instead of first. 

252. Are you stirred. — "We have lost this application 
of stirred (for out of bed). The word now commonly 
used, astir, does not occur in Shakespeare ; and, what is 
remarkable, it has hitherto, although we have long been 
in the habit of applying it freely in various other ways as 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CJESAE. 197 

well as in this sense, escaped all or most of our standard 
lexicographers. I do not find it either in Todd's Johnson, 
or in Webster, or in Richardson, or in "Walker, or in 
Smart. Of course, the emphasis is on you. 

253. 'Tis strucken eight. — Shakespeare uses all the 
three forms, struck, strucken, and stricken, of which the 
existing language has preserved only the first. Vid. 192. 
Mr Collier has here stricken. Strictly speaking, of course, 
the mention of the striking of an hour by an old Roman 
involves an anachronism. Xor is the mode of expression 
that of the time when here, and in 253 and 272, what 
we now call eight and nine o'clock in the morning are 
spoken of as the eighth and ninth hours. 

254. That revels long o' nights. — Vid. 65. Here again 
it is a-nights in the original text. 

256. Bid them prepare. — The use of prepare thus abso- 
lutely (for to make preparation) is hardly now the current 
language, although it might not seem unnatural in verse, 
to which some assumption or imitation of the phraseology 
of the past is not forbidden. 

258. I have an hour's talk, etc. — Hour is here a dis- 
syllable, as such words often are. 

259. That every like is not the same. — That to be like 
a thing is not always to be that thing, — said in reference 
to Cassar's " We, like friends." So the old Scottish pro- 
verb, "Like's an ill mark;" and the common French 
saying, as it has been sometimes converted, " Le vraisem- 
blable n'est pas toujours le vrai." The remark is surely 
to be supposed to be made aside, as well as that of Tre- 
bonius in 257, although neither is so noted in the old copies, 
and the modern editors, while they retain the direction 
to that effect inserted by Rowe at 257, have generally 
struck out the similar one inserted by Pope here. Mr 
Collier, I see, gives both ; but whether on the authority 
of his MS. annotator does not appear. — In the same man- 
ner as here, in Measure for Measure, v. 2, to the Duke's 



198 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

remark, " This is most likely" Isabella replies, " 0, that 
it were as like as it is true." 

259. The heart of Brutus yearns to think upon. — 
Yearns is earnes in the original text. It has been gener- 
ally assumed that yearn and earn are radically the same ; 
the progress of the meaning probably being, it has been 
supposed, to feel strongly — to desire or long for — to en- 
deavour after — to attain or acquire. But Mr Wedgwood 
has lately, in a paper published in the Proceedings of the 
Philological Society, V. 33 (No. 105, read 21 Feb., 1851), 
stated strong reasons for doubting whether there be really 
any connexion between earn and either yearn or earnest. 
The fundamental notion involved in earn, according to 
the view taken by Mr "Wedgwood, is that of harvest or 
reaping. The primary and essential meaning of yearn and 
earnest, again (which are unquestionably of the same 
stock), may be gathered from the modern German gem, 
willingly, readily, eagerly, which in our Original English 
was georn, and was used as an adjective, signifying desir- 
ous, eager, intent. We now commonly employ the verb 
to yearn only in construction with for or after, and in the 
sense of to long for or desire strongly. Perhaps the radical 
meaning may not be more special than to be strongly 
affected. In the present passage it evidently means to 
be stung or wrung with sorrow and regret. Shakespeare's 
construction of the word yearn, in so far as it differs from 
that now in use, may be illustrated by the following 
examples : — ■ 

" It yearns me not if men my garments wear." 

Hen. V., iv. 3; 

" 0, how it yearned my heart, when I beheld." 

Rich. II., v. 5. 

This is the exclamation of the groom. So Mrs Quickly, 
in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Hi. 5 (speaking also, per- 
haps, in the style of an uneducated person), " Well, she la- 
ments, sir, for it, that it would yearn your heart to see it." 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CJESAR. 199 

"To think upon that every like is" would not have 
been said in Shakespeare's day, any more than it would 
be in ours, except under cover of the inversion. 

SCENE III. — The same. A street near the Capitol. 

Enter Aktemidoeus, reading a Paper. 

260. Art. Caesar, beware of Brutus ; take heed of Cassius ; come not 
near Casca ; have an eye to Cinna ; trust not Trebonius ; mark 
well Metellus Cimber; Deems Brutus loves thee not; thou hast 
wronged Caius Ligarius. There is but one mind in all these men, 
and it is bent against Caesar. If thou be'st not immortal, look about 
you : Security gives way to conspiracy. The mighty gods defend 
thee ! Thy lover, Artemidorus. 

Here will I stand, till Caesar pass along, 
And as a suitor will I give him this. 
My beart laments, tbat virtue cannot live 
Out of tbe teetb of emulation. 
If tbou read this, Caesar, tbou mayest live ; 
If not, the fates with traitors do contrive. [Exit. 

260. Security gives way to. — In this sense (of leaving 
a passage open) we should now rather say to make way 
for. To give way has come to mean to yield and break 
under pressure. The heading of this scene in the original 
text is merely, Enter Artemidorus. 

Artemidorus, who was a lecturer on the Greek rhetoric 
at Rome, had, according to Plutarch, obtained his know- 
ledge of the conspiracy from some of his hearers, who 
were friends of Brutus, that is, probably, through expres- 
sions unintentionally dropt by them. 

260. Thy lover. — As we might still say " One who loves 
thee." It is nearly equivalent to friend, and was formerly 
in common use in that sense. Thus in Psalm xxxviii. 
11, we have in the old version " My lovers and my neigh- 
bours did stand looking upon my trouble,' ' and also in 
the common version, " My lovers and my friends stand 
aloof from my sore." — So afterwards in 375 Brutus begins 
his address to the people, "Eomans, countrymen, and 



200 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

lovers." See other instances from private letters in 
Chalmers's Apology, 165. Another change which has been 
undergone by this and some other words is that they are 
now usually applied only to men, whereas formerly they 
were common to both sexes. This has happened, for in- 
stance, to paramour and villain, as well as to lover. But 
villain, as already noticed (186), is still a term of reproach 
for a woman as well as for a man in some of the provincial 
dialects. And, although we no longer call a woman a 
lover, we still say of a man and woman that they are 
lovers, or a pair of lovers. I find the term lover distinctly 
applied to a woman in so late a work as Smollett's Count 
Fathom, published in 1754 : — " These were alarming 
symptoms to a lover of her delicacy and pride." Vol. 1. 
ch. 10. 

260. Out of the teeth of emulation. — As envy (Vid. 
187) is commonly used by Shakespeare in the sense of 
hatred or malice, so emulation, as here, is with him often 
envy or malicious rivalry. There are instances, however, 
of his employing the word, and also the cognate terms 
emulator, emulate, and emulous, not in an unfavourable 
sense. 

260. With traitors do contrive. — The word contrive in 
the common acceptation is a very irregular derivative from 
the French controuver, an obsolete compound of trouver 
' (to find) . The English word appears to have been an- 
ciently written both controve and contreve {Vid. Chaucer's 
Rom. of the Hose, 4249 and 7547) . Spenser, however, 
has a learned contrive of his own (though somewhat ir- 
regularly formed too), meaning to spend, consume, wear 
out, from the Latin contero, contrivi (from which we have 
also contrite). And Shakespeare also at least in one place 
uses the word in this sense : — 

"Please you we may contrive this afternoon." 

Tarn, of Shreiu, i. 2. 



SC. 4.] JULIUS CJESAR. 201 

SCENE IV. — The same. Another part of the same street, 
before the house of Brutus. 

Enter Poetia and Lucius. 

261. For. I pr'ythee, boy, run to the senate-house ; 

Stay not to answer me, but get thee gone : 

Why dost thou stay ? 
Luc. To know my errand, madam. 
263. Por. I would have had thee there, and here again, 

Ere I can tell thee what thou should' st do there. — 

constancy, be strong upon my side ! 

Set a huge mountain 'tween my heart and tongue ! 

1 have a man's mind, but a woman's might. 
How hard it is for women to keep counsel ! — 
Art thou here yet ? 

Luc. Madam, what should I do ? 
Bun to the Capitol, and nothing else ? 
And so return to you, and nothing else ? 

Por. Yes, bring me word, boy, if thy lord look well. 
For he went sickly forth : And take good note, 
What Csesar doth, what suitors press to him. 
Hark, boy ! what noise is that ? 

Luc. I hear none, madam. 

267. Por. Pr'ythee, listen well ; 

I heard a bustling rumour, like a fray, 
And the wind brings it from the Capitol. 

268. Luc, Sooth, madam, I hear nothing. 

Enter The Soothsayee. 

269. Por. Come hither, fellow ; "Which way hast thou been ? 
Sooth. At mine own house, good lady. 

271. Por. What is 't o'clock? 

Sooth. About the ninth hour, lady. 

Por. Is Csesar yet gone to the Capitol ? 

Sooth. Madam, not yet ; I go to take my stand, 
To see him pass on to the Capitol. 

Por. Thou hast some suit to Csesar, hast thou not ? 

Sooth. That 1 have, lady : if it will please Caesar 
To be so good to Csesar as to hear me, 
I shall beseech him to befriend himself. 

277. Por. Why, knowest thou any harm's intended towards him ? 

278. Sooth. None that I know will be, much that I fear may chance. 
Good morrow to you. 



202 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

Here the street is narrow : 
The throng that follows Caesar at the heels, 
Of senators, of praetors, common snitors, 
Will crowd a feeble man almost to death : 
I'll get me to a place more void, and there 
Speak to great Caesar as he comes along. [Exit, 

279. Por. I must go in. — Ay me ! how weak a thing 
The heart of woman is ! 

Brutus ! 
The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise ! — 
Sure, the boy heard me : — Brutus hath a suit, 
That Caesar will not grant. — 0, I grow faint : — 
Run, Lucius, and commend me to my lord ; 
Say, I am merry, come to me again, 
And bring me word what he doth say to thee. [Exeunt, 

Scene IV. — The heading of this scene in the original 
text is only "Enter Portia and Lucius" 

261. Get thee gone. — An idiom ; that is to say, a pe- 
culiar form of expression the principle of which cannot 
be carried out beyond the particular instance. Thus we 
cannot say either Make thee gone, or He got him (or him- 
self) gone. Phraseologies, on the contrary, which are not 
idiomatic are paradigmatic, or may serve as models or 
moulds for others to any extent. All expression is divided , 
into these two kinds. And a corresponding division may 
be made of the inflected parts of speech in any language. 
Thus, for instance, in Greek or Latin, while certain parts 
of speech are indeclinable, those that are declined are 
either paradigmatic (that is, exemplary), such as the noun 
and the verb, or non-exemplary, such as the articles and 
the pronouns. They might be distinguished as repro- 
ductive and non-reproductive. And such an arrangement 
of them might be found convenient for some purposes. 

263. O constancy. — Not exactly our present constancy ; 
rather what we should now call firmness or resolution. 
In the same sense afterwards, in 297, Brutus says, " Cas- 
sius, be constant." The French have another use of con- 
stant, — U est constant (It is certain), — borrowed from the 



SC. 4.] JULIUS CAESAR. 203 

Latin impersonal constat, and not unknown to const o. 
Vid. 310. 

263. I have a man's mind, hut a woman's might. — That 
is, but only a woman's might. 

263. How hard it is for women to keep counsel. — 
Counsel in this phrase is what has been imparted in con- 
sultation. In the phrases To take counsel and To hold 
counsel it means simply consultation. The two words 
Counsel and Council have in some of their applications 
got a little intermingled and confused, although the Latin 
Consilium and Concilium, from which they are severally 
derived, have no connexion. A rather perplexing instance 
occurs in a passage towards the conclusion of Bacon's 
Third Essay, entitled Of Unity in 'Religion, which is com- 
monly thus given in the modern editions : — " Surely in 
counsels concerning religion, that counsel of the apostle 
would be prefixed; Ira hominis non implet justitiam Dei." 
But as published by Bacon himself, if we may trust Mr 
Singer's late elegant reprint, the words are, — " in Coun- 
cils concerning Eeligion, that Counsel of the Apostle — ." 
What are we to say, however, to the Latin version, exe- 
cuted under Bacon's own superintendence ? — " Certe op- 
tandum esset, ut in omnibus circa Beligionem consiliis, 
ante oculos hominum prsefigeretur monitum illud Apos- 
toli." I quote from the Elzevir edition of 1662 ; p. 20. 
Does this support Councils or Counsels concerning Eeli- 
gion ? Other somewhat doubtful instances occur in the 
20th Essay, entitled " Of Counsel," and in the 29th, 
" Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates." 

267. I heard a hustling rumour, like a fray.—~Mr 
Knight has by mistake " I hear." — Rumour is here 
(though not generally in Shakespeare) only a noise; a 
fray is a fight, from the French ; hustle is apparently 
connected with husy, which is an Original English word, 
and may perhaps be the same with the German hose, 
wicked. This, if it be so, might lead us to suspect that 



204 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT II. 

quick is also wicked. And is tveak (in Chaucer wihhe or 
wicke) another variation of the same etymon ? 

268. Sooth, madam. — Sooth, when used at all, may still 
mean either truth or true. We see that in Shakespeare's 
time it also meant truly. The Original English sot h is 
in like manner used in all these different ways. It may 
be doubted whether this word has any connexion either 
with our modern verb to soothe, or with sweet (anciently 
sot), the suss of the modern German. 

269. Come hither, fellow ; which way hast thou been ? — 
The line, which stands thus in the original edition, and 
makes a perfect verse, is commonly cut up into two he- 
mistichs. But " Which way hast thou been" is not a 
possible commencement of a verse, unless we were to lay 
an emphasis on thou, which would be absurd. Our been, 
it may be noted, is here, and commonly elsewhere, bin in 
the old text, as the word is still pronounced. Tyrwhitt 
would substitute Artemidorus for the Soothsayer in this 
scene ; but the change is not necessary. It is to be ob- 
served that we have both Artemidorus and the Soothsayer 
in the next scene (the Eirst of the Third Act). Never- 
theless, there is some apparent want of artifice in what 
may be almost described as the distribution of one part 
between two dramatis personce ; and there may possibly 
be something wrong. 

271. What is't o'clock? — In the original text a clocke. 
Vid. 65. 

277. Why, knowest thou any harm^s intended towards 
him ? — Any harm that is intended. As in 34 and 214. 

278. None that I know, etc. — Hanmer and Steevens 
object to the may chance here, as at once unnecessary to 
the sense and injurious to the prosody. We should not 
have much missed the two words, certainly; but they 
may be borne with. The line is bisected in the original 
edition ; but, if it is to be accepted, it is better, perhaps, 
to consider it as a prolonged verse. In this somewhat 



SC. 4.] JULIUS CJES'AR. 205 

doubtful instance the rhythm will be certainly that of an 
Alexandrine. Let the three words know will he, and also 
the three fear may chance, at any rate, be each and all 
emphatically enunciated. 

278. Til get we.-— Compare this with get thee gone in 
261, and also with get you home in 1. 

279. Ay me I how weak a thing. — This (written Aye 
me) is the reading of all the old copies. That of the 
modern editions, Mr Collier's one-volume included, is 
"Ah me!" The readers of Milton will remember his 
" Ay me ! I fondly dream, Had we been there," and, 
again, " Ay me ! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas 
Wash far away," &c. {Lycidas 56 and 154). So also in 
Comus 511, and Samson Agonistes 330. Even in Paradise 
Lost we have " Ay me ! they little know How dearly I 
abide that boast so vain" (iv. 86), and "Ay me ! that 
fear Comes thundering back with dreadful revolution," — 
although in the latter passage ah has been substituted in 
many of the modern editions. Ah me is a form which he 
nowhere uses. 

279. The heart of woman is ! etc. — The broken lines 
here seem to require to be arranged as I have given them. 
"We do not get a complete verse (if that were an object) 
by the incongruous annexation of the " O Brutus" to the 
previous exclamation. 

279. Brutus hath a suit, etc. — This she addresses in 
explanation to the boy, whose presence she had for a 
moment forgotten. 

279. Commend me to my lord. — In this idiomatic or 
formal phrase the word commend has acquired a somewhat 
peculiar signification. The resolution would seem to be, 
Give my commendation to him, or Say that I commend 
myself to him, meaning that I commit and recommend 
myself to his affectionate remembrance. So we have 
in Latin "Me totum tuo amori fideique commendo" 
{Cicero, Epist. ad Att. UL 20) ; and " Tibi me totum 



206 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

commendo atqne trado " {Id., JEpist. Fam. ii. 6). At the 
same time, in considering the question of the origin and 
proper meaning of the English phrase the custom of what 
was called Commendation in the Feudal System is not to 
be overlooked : the vassal was said to commend himself to 
the person whom he selected for his lord. Commend is 
etymologically the same word with command ; and both 
forms, with their derivatives, have been applied, in Latin 
and the modern tongues more exclusively based upon it, 
as well as in English, in a considerable variety of ways. 



ACT III. 
SCENE I. — The same. The Capitol; the Senate sitting. 

A Crowd of People in the Street leading to the Capitol ; among them 
Aetemidoeus and the Soothsayee. Flourish. Enter C^esab, 
Beutus, Cassius, Casca, Decius, Metellus, Teebonius, 
Cinna, Antony, Lepidus, Popilius, Publius, and others. 

Cces. The ides of March, are come. 
Sooth. Ay, Caesar ; but not gone. 
Art. Hail, Caesar, read this schedule. 
283. Dec. Trebonius doth desire you to o'er-read, 
At your best leisure, this his humble suit. 

Art. 0, Caesar, read mine first ; for mine's a suit 
That touches Caesar nearer : Read it, great Caesar. 
285. Cces. That touches us ? Ourself shall be last served. 
Art. Delay not, Caesar ; read it instantly. 
Cces. What, is the fellow mad ? 
Pub. Sirrah, give place. 
289. Cas. What, urge you your petitions in the street ? 
Come to the Capitol. 

C^sab enters the Capitol, the rest following. All the 
Senatoes rise. 

Pop. I wish your enterprise to-day may thrive. 
Cas. What enterprise, Popilius ? 
292. Pop. Fare you well. [Advances to C.esau. 

Bru. What said Popilius Lena ? 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^SAE. 207 

Cas. He wished to-day our enterprise might thrive. 
I fear our purpose is discovered. 

295. Bru. Look, how he makes to Ca?sar : Mark him. 

296. Cas. Casca, be sudden, for we fear prevention.— 
Brutus, what shall be done ? If this be known, 
Cassius on Caesar never shall turn back, 

For I will slay myself. 

297. Bru. Cassius, be constant : 

Popilius Lena speaks not of our purposes ; 

For, look, he smiles, and Caesar doth not change. 

298. Cas. Trebonius knows his time ; for, look you, Brutus, 
He draws Mark Antony out of the way. 

[Exeunt Antony and Trebonius. C^sar and the 
Senators take their seats. 
Dec. Where is Metellus Cimber ? Let him go, 
And presently prefer his suit to Caesar. 

300. Bru. He is addressed : press near and second him. 

301. Cin. Casca, you are the first that rears your hand. 

302. Casca. Are we all ready ? 
Cces. What is now amiss, 

That Caesar, and his senate, must redress ? 

304. Met. Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Caesar, 
Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat 

An humble heart : — [Kneeling. 

305. Cces. I must prevent thee, Cimber. 
These crouchings, and these lowly courtesies, 
Might fire the blood of ordinary men ; 

And turn pre-ordinance, and first decree, 

Into the law of children. Be not fond, 

To think that Caesar bears such rebel blood, 

That will be thawed from the true quality 

With that which melteth fools ; I mean sweet words, 

Low-crouched curt'sies, and base spaniel fawning. 

Thy brother by decree is banished ; 

If thou dost bend, and pray, and fawn for him, 

I spurn thee like a cur out of my way. 

Know, Caesar doth not wrong ; nor without cause 

Will he be satisfied. 

306. Met, Is there no voice more worthy than my own, 
To sound more sweetly in great Caesar's ear 

For the repealing of my banished brother ? 
307- Bru. I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Caesar ; 
Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may 



208 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

Have an immediate freedom of repeal. 
Ccbs. What, Brutus ! 

309. Oas. Pardon, Caesar ; Caesar, pardon : 
As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall, 

To heg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber. 

310. Cobs. I could be well moved, if I were as you ; 
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me : 
But I am constant as the northern star, 

Of whose true fixt and resting quality 
There is no fellow in the firmament. 
The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks ; 
They are all fire, and every one doth shine ; 
But there's but one in all doth hold his place : 
So, in the world ; 'tis furnished well with men, 
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive j 
Yet, in the number, I do know but one 
That unassailable holds on his rank, 
Unshaked of motion : and, that I am he, 
Let me a little show it, even in this ; 
That I was constant Cimber should be banished, 
And constant do remain to keep him so. 

Cin. Caesar, 

312. Cces. Hence ! wilt thou lift up Olympus ? 
Dec. Great Caesar, 

314. Cces. Doth not Brutus bootless kneel ? 

315. Casca. Speak, hands, for me. 

[Casca stabs C^isae in the neck. C^sar catches hold of his 
arm. He is then stabbed by several other Conspirators, and 
at last by Marcus Brutus. 

316. Cces. Et tu, Brute. — Then, fall, Caesar. 

[Dies. The Senators and People retire in confusion. 

Cin. Liberty ! Freedom ! Tyranny is dead ! — 
Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets. 

Cas. Some to the common pulpits, and cry out, 
Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisernent ! 
319. Bru. People, and senators ! be not affrighted; 
Fly not ; stand still : — ambition's debt is paid. 

Casca, Go to the pulpit, Brutus. 

Dec. And Cassius too. 

Bru. Where' s Publius ? 

Cin. Here, quite confounded with this mutiny. 

Met. Stand fast together, lest some friend of Caesar's 
Should chance 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^SAB. 20C 

325. Bru. Talk not of standing ; Publius, good cheer ; 
There is no harm intended to your person, 
Nor to no Roman else : so tell them, Publius. 

Cas. And leave us, Publius ; lest that the people, 
Rushing on us, should do your age some mischief. 
327- Bru. Do so ; — and let no man abide this deed, 
But we the doers. 

Re-enter Treboxius. 

328. Cas. Where's Antony ? 

329. Tre. Fled to his house amazed : 

Men, wives, and children stare, cry out, and run, 

As it were doomsday. 

Bru. Fates ! we will know your pleasures : 

That we shall die, we know; 'tis but the time, 

And drawing days out, that men stand upon. 
331. Casca. Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life 

Cuts off so many years of fearing death. 
Bru. Grant that, and then is death a benefit : 

So are we Caesar's friends, that have abridged 

His time of fearing death. — Stoop, Romans, stoop, 

And let us bathe our hands in Caesar's blood 

Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords : 
, Then walk we forth, even to the market-place ; 

And, waving our red weapons o'er our heads, 

Let's all cry, Peace ! Freedom ! and Liberty ! 

333. Cas. Stoop, then, and wash. How many ages hence, 
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over 

In states unborn, and accents yet unknown ! 

334. Bru. How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport, 
That now on Pompey's basis lies along, 

No worthier than the dust ! 

335. Cas. So oft as that shall be, 

So often shall the knot of us be called 
The men that gave their country liberty. 
Dee. What, shall we forth ? 
337. Cas. Ay, every man away : 

Brutus shall lead ; and we will grace his heels 
With the most boldest and best hearts of Rome. 

Enter a Servant. 

Bru. Soft, who comes here ? A friend of Antony's. 
339. Serv. Thus, Brutus, did my master bid me kneel ; 
Thus did Mark Antonv bid me fail down : 



210 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTAET. [ACT III. 

And, being prostrate, thus lie bade me say. 
Brutus is noble, wise, valiant, and honest ; 
Caesar was mighty, bold, royal, and loving : 
Say, I love Brutus, and I honour him ; 
Say, I feared Caesar, honoured him, and loved him. 
If Brutus will vouchsafe, that Antony 
May safely come to him, and be resolved 
How Caesar hath deserved to lie in death, 
Mark Antony shall not love Caesar dead 
So well as Brutus living ; but will follow 
The fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus, 
Thorough the hazards of this untrod state, 
"With all true faith. So says my master Antony. 
340. Bru. Thy master is a wise and valiant Boman ; 
I never thought him worse. 
Tell him, so please him come unto this place, 
He shall be satisfied ; and, by my honour, 
Depart untouched. 

Serv. I'll fetch him presently. [Exit Sert, 

342. Bru, I know that we shall have him well to friend. 

343. Cas. I wish we may : but yet have I a mind 
That fears him much ; and my misgiving still 
Falls shrewdly to the purpose. 

Re-enter Antony. 

344. Bru. But here comes Antony. — "Welcome, Mark Antony. 

345. Ant. mighty Caesar ! Dost thou lie so low ? 
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, 
Shrunk to this little measure P — Fare thee well. 
I know not, gentlemen, what you intend, 

Who else must be let blood, who else is rank : 

If I myself, there is no hour so fit 

As Caesar's death's hour ; nor no instrument 

Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich 

With the most noble blood of all this world. 

I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard, 

Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke 

Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand years, 

I shall not find myself so apt to die : 

No place will please me so, no mean of death 

As here, by Caesar and by you, cut off, 

The choice and master spirits of this age. 

346. Bru. Antony ! beg not your death of us 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^ESAB. 211 

Though now we must appear bloody and cruel, 
As, by our hands, and this our present act, 
You see we do, yet see you but our hands, 
And this the bleeding business they have done : 
Our hearts you see not, they are pitiful ; 
And pity to the general wrong of Rome 
(As fire drives out fire, so pity, pity), 
Hath done this deed on Caesar. For your part, 
To you our swords have leaden points, Mark Antony : 
Our arms, in strength of welcome, and our hearts, 
Of brothers' temper, do receive you in 
With all kind love, good thoughts, and reverence. 
Cas, Your voice shall be as strong as any man's 
In the disposing of new dignities. 

348. Bru. Only be patient, till we have appeased 
The multitude, beside themselves with fear, 
And then we will deliver you the cause 

Why I, that did love Caesar when I struck him, 
Have thus proceeded. 

349. Ant, I doubt not of your wisdom. 

Let each man render me his bloody hand : 
First, Marcus Brutus, will I shake with you : — 
Next, Cains Cassius, do I take your hand ; — 
Kow, Decius Brutus, yours ; — now yours, Metellus ; 
Yours, Cinna ; — and, my valiant Casca, yours ; — 
Though last, not least in love, yours, good Trebonius. 
Gentlemen all, — alas ! what shall I say ? 
My credit now stands on such slippery ground, 
That one of two bad ways you must conceit me, 
Either a coward or a flatterer. — 
That I did love thee, Caesar, 0, 'tis true : 
If then thy spirit look upon us now, 
Shall it not grieve thee, dearer than thy death, 
To see thy Antony making his peace, 
Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes, 
Most noble ! in the presence of thy corse ? 
Had I as many eyes as thou hast wounds, 
Weeping as fast as they stream forth thy blood, 
It would become me better, than to close 
In terms of friendship with thine enemies. 
Pardon me, Julius ! — Here wast thou bayed, brave hart ; 
Here didst thou fall ; and here thy hunters stand, 
Signed in thy spoil, and crimsoned in thy death. 
p 2 



212 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

world ! thou wast the forest to this hart ; 
And this, indeed, world, the heart of thee. — 
How like a deer, strucken by many princes, 
Dost thon here lie ! 

Cas. Mark Antony, 

351. Ant. Pardon me, Caius Cassius : 
The enemies of Caesar shall say this ; 
Then, in a friend, it is cold modesty. 

352. Cas. I blame you not for praising Caesar so ; 
But what compact mean you to have with us ? 
Will you be pricked in number of our friends ; 
Or shall we on, and not depend on you ? 

353. Ant. Therefore I took your hands ; but was, indeed, 
Swayed from the point, by looking down on Caesar. 
Friends am I with you all, and love you all ; 

Upon this hope, that you shall give me reasons 
Why, and wherein, Caesar was dangerous. 

354. Bru. Or else were this a savage spectacle. 
Our reasons are so full of good regard, 
That, were you, Antony, the son of Csesar, 
You should be satisfied. 

355. Ant That's all I seek : 

And am moreover suitor, that I may 
Produce his body to the market-place ; 
And in the pulpit, as becomes a friend, 
Speak in the order of his funeral. 
Bru. You shall, Mark Antony. 

357. Cas. Brutus, a word with you. — 

You know not what you do ; Do not consent 

That Antony speak in his funeral : 

Know you how much the people may be moved 

By that which he will utter ? [Aside. 

358. Bru. By your pardon ; — 

1 will myself into the pulpit first, 

And show the reason of our Cesar's death : 
What Antony shall speak, I will protest 
He speaks by leave and by permission ; 
And that we are contented, Csesar shall 
Have all true rites, and lawful ceremonies. 
It shall advantage more than do us wrong. 

359. Cas. I know not what may fall ; I like it not. 

360. Bru. Mark Antony, here, take you Caesar's body 
You shall not in your funeral speech blame us, 



SC. 1.] JULIUS CJBSAJi. 213 

But speak all good you cau devise of Caesar , 
And say, you do't by our permission ; 
Else shall you not have any hand at all 
About his funeral. And you shall speak 
In the same pulpit whereto I am going, 
After my speech is ended. 

Ant. Be it so ; 
I do desire no more. 

362. Bru. Prepare the body, then, and follow us. 

[Exeunt all but ANTONY. 

363. Ant. 0, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, 
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers ! 
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man 

That ever lived in the tide of times. 

Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood ! 

Over thy wounds now do I prophesy, — 

Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips 

To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue : — 

A curse shall light upon the loins of men ; 

Domestic fury, and fierce civil strife, 

Shall cumber all the parts of Italy : 

Blood and destruction shall be so in use, 

And dreadful objects so familiar, 

That mothers shall but smile when they behold 

Their infants quartered with the hands of war ; 

All pity choked with custom of fell deeds : 

And Caesar's spirit ranging for revenge, 

"With Ate by his side, come hot from hell, 

Shall in these confines, with a monarch's voice, 

Cry Havoc ! and let slip the dogs of war ; 

That this foul deed shall smell above the earth 

With carrion men, groaning for burial. 

Enter a Servant. 

You serve Octavius Caesar, do you not ? 
Serv. I do, Mark Antony. 
Ant. Caesar did write for him to come to Eome. 

366. Serv. He did receive his letters, and is coming : 
And bid me say to you by word of mouth, — 

Caesar ! — — [Seeing the Body, 

367. Ant. Thy heart is big ; get thee apart and weep. 
Passion, I see, is catching ; for mine eyes, 
Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine, 



214 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEKTAIiY. [ACT III. 

Began to water. Is thy master coming ? 

Serv. He lies to-night within seven leagues of Eome. 
369. Ant. Post back with speed, and tell him what hath chanced : 
Here is a mourning Eome, a dangerous Eome, 
No Eome of safety for Octavius yet ; 
Hie hence, and tell him so. Yet, stay a while ; 
Thou shalt not back, till I have borne this corpse 
Into the market-place : there shall I try, 
In my oration, how the people take 
The cruel issue of these bloody men ; 
According to the which thou shalt discourse 
To young Octavius of the state of things. 
Lend me your hand. [Exeunt with Cesar's body. 

All the heading that we have to this Act in the original 
copy, where the whole is thrown into one scene, is, " Flou- 
rish. Enter Ccesar, Brutus, Cassius, Casket, Decius, Me- 
tellus, Trebonius, Cynna, Antony, Lepidus, Artemidorus, 
Pullivs, and the Soothsayer" — A Flourish is defined by- 
Johnson " a kind of musical prelude." It is commonly, if 
not always, of trumpets. Webster has omitted this sense 
of the word. It is of continual occurrence in the stage 
directions of our old Plays ; and Shakespeare has, not 
only in his Richard the Third, iv. 4t, 

"A flourish, trumpets! — strike alarum, drums!" 
but in Titus Andronicus, iv. 2, 

""Why do the emperor's trumpets flourish thus ?" 

283. Doth desire you to der-read. — Over (or o'er) in 
composition has four meanings : — 1. Throughout (or over 
all), which is its effect here (answering to the per in the 
equivalent peruse) ; 2. Beyond, or in excess, as in overleap, 
overpay ; 3. Across, as in one sense of overlook; 4. Down 
upon, as in another sense of the same verb. 

283. At your best leisure. — Literally, at the leisure 
that is best for your convenience, that best suits you. 
The phrase, however, had come to be understood as im- 
plying that the leisure was also to be as early as could 
be made convenient. 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^ESAK. 215 

283. This his humble suit. — Suit is from sue (which we 
also have in composition in ensue, issue, pursue) ; and sue 
is the French suivre (which, again, is from the Latin 
sequor, secutus). A suit of clothes is a set, one piece fol- 
lowing or corresponding to another. Suite is the same 
word, whether nsed for a retinue, or for any other kind 
of succession (such as a suite of apartments). 

285. That touches us? Our self shall he last served. — 
This is the correction of Mr Collier's MS. annotator. 
The common reading is, " "What touches us ourself shall 
be last served." To serve, or attend to, & person is a fa- 
miliar form of expression ; to speak of a thing as served, 
in the sense of attended to, would, it is apprehended, be 
unexampled. The "us ourself," however, would be un- 
objectionable. "Whatever may be the motive or view 
which has led to the substitution of the plural for the 
singular personal pronoun in certain expressions, it is 
evident that the plurality of the pronoun could not con- 
veniently be allowed to carry along with it a correspond- 
ing transformation of all the connected words. Although 
an English king might speak of himself as We, it would 
be felt that the absurdity was too great if he were to go 
on to say, ""We the Kings of England." Hence such 
awkward combinations as " We ourself," or " Us ourself;" 
which, however, are only exemplifications of the same con- 
struction which we constantly employ in common life 
when in addressing an individual we say "You yourself." 
The same contradiction, indeed, is involved in the word 
Yourself standing alone. It may be observed, however, 
that the verb always follows the number of the pronoun 
which is its nominative, so that there is never any viola- 
tion of the ordinary rule of grammatical concord. Upon 
the nature of the word Self, see Latham, Ung. Lan. 416. 
See also the note on 54, Did lose his lustre. 

289. There is no such stage direction in the old editions 
as we now have at the end of this speech. 



216 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEWTAEY. [ACT III. 

292. The stage direction attached to this speech is 
also modern. 

295. Look, how lie makes to Ccesar. — We should now 
say, he makes up to. And we also say to make for, with 
another meaning.—- For the prosody of this verse, see note 
on 246. 

296. Casca, he sudden, etc. — We should now rather say, 
Be quick. Prevention is hindrance by something happen- 
ing before that which is hindered. Vid. 147. 

296. Cassias on Ccesar never shall turn bach. — The 
reading of all the old copies is " or Caesar," and it is re- 
tained by most or all of the modern editors. It is inter- 
preted by Bitson as meaning "Either Caesar or I shall 
never return alive." But to turn bach cannot mean to 
return alive, or to return in any way. The most it could 
mean would be to make a movement towards returning ; 
which is so far from being "the same thing with the ac- 
complished return which this translation would have it to 
imply that it may almost be said to be the very opposite. 
Besides, even if to turn back could mean here to leave or 
get away from the Capitol alive, although Cassius, by 
plunging his dagger into his own heart, would indeed 
have prevented himself from so escaping, how was that 
act to bring with it any similar risk to Caesar ? I will 
slay myself, Cassius is supposed to say, whereby either I 
shall lose my life or Caesar will his. The emendation of 
" or Caesar" into " on Caesar" was proposed and is strongly 
supported by Malone, although he did not venture to in- 
troduce it into his text. We have probably the opposite 
misprint of on for or in the speech of Paulina in the con- 
cluding scene of The Winter's Tale, where the old copies 
give us — 

"Then, all standstill: 
On : those that think it is unlawful business 
I am about, let them depart." 

Although Mr Knight adheres to the on and the point. 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^SAR. 217 

297. Cassius, he constant. — Vid. 263. 

297. JPopilius Lena speaks not of our purposes. — Al- 
though this verse has twelve syllables, it is not for that 
an Alexandrine. Its rhythm is the same as if the last 
word had been merely the dissyllable purpose, or even a 
monosyllable, such as act or deed. It is completed by the 
strong syllable pur- in the tenth place, and the two un- 
accented syllables that follow have no prosodical effect. 
Of course, there is also an oratorical emphasis on our, al- 
though standing in one of those places which do not 
require an accented syllable, but which it is a mistake to 
suppose incapable of admitting such. 

297. Ccesar doth not change.— In his manner of looking, 
or the expression of his countenance. 

298. The stage direction attached to this speech is 
modern. 

300. He is addressed. — -To dress is the same word with 
to direct. Immediately from the French dresser, it is 
ultimately from the Latin rectus and directus, through the 
Italian rizzare and dirizzare ; and its literal meaning, 
therefore, is, to make right or straight. Formerly, ac- 
cordingly, anything was said to be dressed or addressed 
when it was in complete order for the purpose to which 
it was to be applied. Thus, in the Second Part of King 
Henry the Fourth, iv. 4, the King says, " Our navy is 
addressed, our power collected;" and in A Midsummer 
Night's Bream, v. 1, Philostrate, the Master of the Eevels, 
makes his official announcement to Theseus thus ; — " So 
please your Grace, the prologue is addressed." So He is 
addressed in the present passage means merely He is 
ready. The primary sense of the word is still retained 
in such phrases as To dress the ranks ; and it is not far 
departed from in such as To dress cloth or leather, To 
dress a wound, To dress meat. The notion of decoration 
or embellishment which we commonly associate with 
dressing does not enter fully even into the expression To 



218 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

dress the hair. In To redress, meaning to set to rights 
again that which has gone wrong, to make that which was 
crooked once more straight, we have the simple etymolo- 
gical or radical import of the word completely preserved. 
To redress is to re-rectify. 

The following are some examples of the employment of 
the word addressed by writers of the latter part of the 
seventeenth century: — "When Middleton came to the 
King in Paris, he brought with him a little Scotish vicar, 
who was known to the King, one Mr Knox. . . . He 
said he was addressed from Scotland to the Lords in the 
Tower, who did not then know that Middleton had ar- 
rived in safety with the King;" etc. — Clarendon, Hist., 
Booh xiii. "Thereupon they [the King's friends in 
England] sent Harry Seymour, who, being of his Majesty's 
bedchamber, and having his leave to attend his own affairs 
in England, they well knew would be believed by the 
King, and, being addressed only to the Marquis of Ormond 
and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he might have op- 
portunity to speak with the King privately and undisco- 
vered;" etc. — Id., Hook xiv. "Though the messengers 
who were sent were addressed only to the King himself 
and to the Chancellor of the Exchequer;" etc. — Ibid. 
" Two gentlemen of Kent came to "Windsor the morning 
after the Prince [of Orange] came thither. They were 
addressed to me. And they told me;" etc. — Burnet, Own 
Time, I. 799. 

301. You are the first that rears your hand. — In strict 
grammar, perhaps, it should be either "rears his" or 
" rear your ;" but the business of an editor of Shakespeare 
is not to make for us in all cases perfect grammar, but to 
give us what his author in all probability wrote. A 
writer's grammatical irregularities are as much part of 
his style, and therefore of his mind and of himself, as any 
other characteristic. 

302. Casca. Are we all ready? 303. Ca3S. What is 



sc. l.J jrLirs c.hsae. 219 

now amiss, etc. There can, I think, "be no doubt that Mr 
Collier's MS. annotator has here again given ns the true 
reading, and a valuable restoration. "Wnat Casca could 
possibly mean by exclaiming " AYhat is now amiss, That 
Caesar and his Senate must redress ?" is nearly inconceiv- 
able. The question is plainly suitable to Caesar only, to 
the person presiding; the proceedings could never have 
been so opened by a ay mere member of the Senate. And 
the absurdity of supposing it to have been spoken by 
Casca becomes still stronger when we have to consider it 
as a natural sequence of the " Are we all ready?" which 
immediately precedes. Even if any one of the conspirators 
was likely to have made such a display, it was hardly Casca. 

304. Most puissant Ccesar. — Puissant, and the sub- 
stantive form puissance, are, I believe, always dissyllables 
in Milton ; with Shakespeare they generally are so (as 
here), but not always. Thus in King John, Hi. L the 
King says to the Bastard, 

"Cousin, go draw our puissance together. " 
"Walker, however, is mistaken in producing the line — 
"Either past, or not arrived to pith and puissance" — 

(from the Chorus before the Third Act of King Henry 
the Fifth) as necessarily to be read with the trisyllabic 
division of the word. It is not even probable that it ought 
to be so read, — barely possible. In Spenser too we have 
occasionally this pronunciation : — as in I\ Q. v. 2, 7, "For 
that he is so puissant and strong;" and again in st. 17, 
" His puissance, ne bear himself upright." 

305. These crouchings. — This is the correction (for the 
couching s of the old printed copies) of Mr Collier's MS. 
annotator. Surely it does not admit of a doubt. 

305. And turn pre-ordinance, etc. — The reading of the 
old text here is "into the lane of children." Malone 
actually attempts an explanation of " the lane of children ; " 
he says it may mean " the narrow conceits of children, 



220 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

which must change as their minds grow more enlarged"! 
The prostration of the human understanding before what 
it has got to hold as authority can hardly be conceived 
to go beyond this. Johnson conjectured that lane might 
be a misprint for law ; and Mr Collier's MS. annotator, 
it appears, makes the same emendation. The new reading 
may still be thought not to be perfectly satisfactory ; but 
at least it is not utter nonsense, like the other. In a 
passage which has evidently suffered some injury, we may 
perhaps be allowed to suspect that "first decree" should 
be "fixed decree." The word would be swelled ficct, as it 
is immediately afterwards in 310. 

305. Be not fond, etc. — The sense in which fond is used 
here (that of foolish) appears to be the original one ; so 
that when tenderness of affection was first called fondness 
it must have been regarded as a kind of folly. In like 
manner what was thought of doting upon anything, or 
any person, may be inferred from the import of the word 
dotage. In Chaucer afbnne is a fool ; and the word fond- 
ling can scarcely be said to have yet lost that meaning 
(though it is omitted by Dr "Webster). 

305. Such rebel blood, That will be thawed. — Vid. 44. 

305. Low-crouched curtesies. — This is the correction of 
Mr Collier's MS. annotator : the Polios have " Low- 
crooked- curtsies" (with hyphens connecting all the three 
words). We say to crouch low, but not to crook low. 
Curtesies, which we have here, is the same word which 
appears in the second line of the present speech as cour- 
tesies. It is akin to court and courteous, the immediate 
root being the French cour ; which, again, appears to be 
the Latin curia, — or rather curiata (scil. comitia?), as is 
indicated by our English court, and the old form of the 
French word, which was the same, and also by the Italian 
corte and the Spanish corte and cortes. Mr Collier prints 
curtesies. It is curtsies in the Second Folio, as well as 
in the First. 



SC. 1.] JULIUS CiESAB. 221 

305. Know, Ccesar cloth not wrong, etc. — This is the 
reading of all the old printed copies, and Mr Collier ex- 
pressly states that it is left nntonched by his MS. cor- 
rector. "We mnst take it as meaning, " Caesar never does 
what is wrong, or nnjnst ; nor will he be appeased (when 
he has determined to punish) without sufficient reason 
being shown." At the same time, it must be confessed 
both that these two propositions, or affirmations, do not 
hang very well together, and also that such meaning as 
they may have is not very clearly or effectively expressed 
by the words. " Xor without cause will he be satisfied " 
has an especially suspicious look. That " without cause " 
should mean without sufficient reason being shown why 
he should be satisfied or induced to relent is only an in- 
terpretation to which we are driven for want of a better. 
"Now, all this being so, it is remarkable that there is good 
evidence that the passage did not originally stand as we 
now have it. Ben Jon son, in his Discoveries, speaking 
of Shakespeare, says, " Many times he fell into those 
things could not escape laughter ; as when he said in the 
person of Caesar, one speaking to him, ' Caesar, thou dost 
me wrong,' he replied, ' Caesar did never wrong but with 
just cause.'" And he ridicules the expression again in his 
Staple of News : — " Cry you mercy ; you never did wrong 
but with just cause." We must believe that the words 
stood originally as Jonson has given them ; and he had 
evidently heard of no alteration of them. Whoever may 
have attempted to mend them might perhaps have as well 
let them alone. After all, Caesar's declaring that he never 
did wrong but with just cause would differ little from 
what Bassanio says in The Merchant of Venice, iv. 1 : — 

" I beseech you, 
"Wrest once the law to your authority : 
To do a great right do a little wrong." 

Shakespeare, however, may have retouched the passage 
himself on being told of Jonson's ridicule of it. though 



222 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEIS'TAKY. [ACT III. 

perhaps somewhat hastily and with less painstaking than 
Euripides when he mended or cut out, as he is said to 
have done in several instances, what had incurred the 
derisive criticism of Aristophanes. 

306. For the repealing, etc. — To repeal (from the French 
rappeler) is literally to recall, though no longer used in 
that sense, — in which, however, it repeatedly occurs in 
Shakespeare. Thus iu Coriolanus, iv. 1, after the banish- 
ment of Marcius, his friend Cominius says to him, 

"If the time thrust forth 
A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send," etc. 

For the probable pronunciation of vanished in this and in 
the preceding speech, see the note on 246. 

307. Desiring thee. — We should now say in this sense 
" desiring of thee." To desire, from the Latin desiderium 
(through the French desir) is the same as to desiderate ; 
but, like other similar terms, it has in different construc- 
tions, or has had in different stages of the language, va- 
rious meanings according to the measure or degree of 
intensity in which that which it expresses is conceived to 
be presented. It may be found in every sense, from such 
wishing or longing as is the gentlest and quietest of all 
things (the soft desire of the common herd of our amatory 
versemongers) to that kind which gives utterance to itself 
in the most imperative style of command. 

307. An immediate freedom of repeal. — A free uncon- 
ditional recall. This application of the term freedom is a 
little peculiar. It is apparently imitated from the ex- 
pression freedom of a city. As that is otherwise called 
the municipal franchise, so this is called enfranchisement 
in the next speech but one. 

309. As low as to thy foot. — The Second Folio has 
"As lover 

310. I could he well moved. — I could fitly or properly 
be moved. 

310. If I could pray to move, prayers would move me. — 



SC. 1.] JULIUS CJ3SAB. 223 

The meaning seems to be, " If I could employ prayers 
(as you can do) to move (others) , then I should be moved 
by prayers (as you might be)." But it is somewhat dark. 
The commentators see no difficulty, or at least give us no 
help. "The oracles are dumb.' ' 

310. But I am constant as the northern star. — Vid. 263. 
Both in this line and in the two last lines of the present 
speech, the term firm would more nearly express the no- 
tion in our modern English. 

310. Besting quality. — Quality or property of remain- 
ing at rest or immovable. 

310. But there's hut one in all doth hold his place. — 
That is, its place, as we should now say. Vid. 54. 

310. Apprehensive. — Possessed of the power of appre- 
hension, or intelligence. The word is now confined to 
another meaning. 

310. That unassailable, etc. — Holds on his rank proba- 
bly means continues to hold his place ; and unshaked oj 
motion, perhaps, unshaken by any motion, or solicitation, 
that may be addressed to him. Or, possibly, it may be, 
Holds on his course unshaken in his motion, or with per- 
fectly steady movement. 

312. Wilt thou, lift up Olympus ? — Wilt thou attempt 
an impossibility? Think you, with your clamour, to 
upset what is immovable as the everlasting seat of the 
Gods? 

314. Doth not Brutus bootless kneel ? — Has not Brutus 
been refused, and shall any other be listened to ? It is 
surprising that Dr Johnson should have missed seeing 
this, and proposed to read " Do not, Brutus, bootless 
kneel." That, however (which Johnson does not appear 
to have known), is also the reading of the Second Folio, 
— except, indeed, that the point of interrogation is, not- 
withstanding, still preserved. Mr Collier in his regulated 
text adheres to the reading of the First Folio ; but it does 
not appear that he has the sanction of any restoration of 



224 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENT ABY. [ACT III. 

that reading, or correction of that of the Second Folio, 
by his MS. annotator. 

315. — The only stage direction after this speech in the 
original edition is, " They stab Ccesar" 

316. JEt tic, Brute. — There is no ancient Latin author- 
ity, I believe, for this famous exclamation, although in 
Suetonius, I. 82, Caesar is made to address Brutus Kcu crv, 
tikvov ; (And thou too, my son ?) . It may have occurred 
as it stands here in the Latin play on the same subject 
which is recorded to have been acted at Oxford in 1582 ; 
and it is found in The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of 
York, first printed in 1595, on which the Third Part of 
King Henry the Sixth is founded, as also in a poem by S. 
Nicholson, entitled Acolastus his Afterwit, printed in 1600, 
in both of which nearly contemporary productions we have 
the same line : — " Et tu, Brute ? Wilt thou stab Caesar 
too ?" It may just be noticed, as the historical fact, that 
the meeting of the Senate at which Caesar was assassinated 
was held, not, as is here assumed, in the Capitol, but in 
the Curia in which the statue of Pompey stood, being, 
as Plutarch tells us, one of the edifices which Pompey 
had built, and had given, along with his famous Theatre, 
to the public. It adjoined the Theatre, which is spoken 
of (with the Portico surrounding it) in 130, 138, and 
140. The mistake which we have here is found also in 
Hamlet, where {Hi. 2) Hamlet questions Polonius about 
his histrionic performances when at the University : " I 
did enact Julius Caesar," says Polonius ; " I was killed i' 
the Capitol ; Brutus killed me;" to which the Prince re- 
plies, " It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf 
there." So also, in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 6 : — 

" What 
Made the all-honoured, honest, Eoman Brutus, 
"With the armed rest, courtiers of beauteous freedom, 
To drench the Capitol ?" 

Even Beaumont and Fletcher, in their Tragedy entitled 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^SAR. 225 

The False One, in defending themselves from the imputa- 
tion of having taken np the same subject which had been 
already brought on the stage in the present Play, say : — 

"Sure to tell 

Of Caesar's amorous heats, and how he fell 
P the Capitol, can never be the same 
To the judicious." 

In the old copies the only stage direction at the end of 
this speech is the word " Dies." 

319. Ambition's debt is paid. — Its debt to the country 
and to justice. Unless, as a friend suggests, the meaning 
may be — Ambition has now received its reward, its due. 

325. Nor to no Roman else. — Where, as here, the sense 
cannot be mistaken, the reduplication of the negative is a 
very natural way of strengthening the expression. Steev- 
ens remarks that, according to Hickes, we have in the 
English of the times before the Conquest sometimes so 
many as four negatives employed in combination for this 
end. 

327. And let no man abide tliis deed. — Let no man be 
held responsible for, or be required to stand any conse- 
quences that may follow upon any penalty that may 
have to be paid on account of, this deed. Another form 
of the verb to abide is to aby ; as in A Midsummer Night's 
Dream, Hi. 2 : — 

" If thou dost intend 
Never so little shew of love to her, 
Thou shalt aby it ; " 

and in the same scene, a little before, " Lest to thy peril 
thou aby it dear ;" and, a little after, " Thou shalt 'by this 
dear." So in the Old Version of the Psalms, Hi. 26, 
" Thou shalt dear aby this blow." It may be questioned 
whether abide in this sense has any connexion with the 
common word. To aby has been supposed by some to be 
the same with buy. — The original stage direction is Enter 
Trebonius. 



226 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEXTAET. [ACT III. 

328. Where's Antony. — In the original text, "Where 
is Antony." 

329. As it were doomsday. — Assuming the proper 
meaning of as to be what was explained in the note on 
44, as it were will mean literally no more than that it 
tvere, and there will be no express intimation of the clause 
being suppositive or conditional ; that will be left to be 
merely inferred from the obvious requirements of the 
context, as many things in language continually are where 
no doubt can exist. The full expression would be " as if 
it were doomsday." — The doom of doomsday is no doubt 
the same word with deem, and means essentially only 
thought or judging, whether favourable or unfavourable. 
The Judges in the Isle of Man and in Jersey are called 
Deemsters, meaning, apparently, only pronouncers of judg- 
ment upon the cases brought before them. On the other 
hand, however, in Scotland formerly the Dempster of 
Court was the legal name for the common hangman. 
This might suggest a possible connexion between deem or 
doom and the Latin damno (or demno, as in condemno). 
But the name Dempster in Scotland also designated a 
species of judge. The Dempsters of Caraldstone in For- 
farshire were so called as being hereditary judges to the 
great Abbey of Aberbrothock. Lord Hailes, under the 
year 1370, refers to an entry in the Chartulary recording 
that one of them had become bound to the Abbot and 
Abbey that he and his heirs should furnish a person to 
administer justice in their courts at an annual salary of 
twenty shillings sterling (facient ipsis deserviri de officio 

judicis, etc.). — Annals, II. 336 [edit, of 1819]. We con- 
tinue to use deem indifferently ; but another word origin- 
ally of the same general signification, censure, has within 
the last two centuries lost its old sense, and has come to 
be restricted to that of pronouncing an unfavourable 
judgment. The other sense, however, is still retained in 
census, recension, and censor, with its derivative censorship 



SC. 1.] JULIUS CJESAK. 227 

(as it is in the French forms for the two last-mentioned, 
censeur and censure). 

331. Why, lie that cuts off, etc. — The modern editors, 
generally, give this speech to Cassius ; bnt it is assigned 
to Casca in all the old copies. We may snspect a misprint, 
— for not only is it more in the manner of Cassius, but it 
does not seem to be so suitable to the comparatively sub- 
ordinate position of Casca at the present moment ; — still, 
considerations of this kind are not decisive enough to 
warrant us in departing from the only text which claims 
to be of authority. Xo alteration is made by Mr Collier's 
MS. corrector. But it certainly would be nothing more 
than what we should expect that some confusion should 
have taken place in the printing of this Play between Cas- 
sius and Casca, as well as between Lucilius and Lucius. 

333. Stoop, then, and wash. — So in Coriolanus, i. 10, we 
have — " Wash my fierce hand in his heart." In both 
passages wash, which is an Original English word (pre- 
served also in the German waschen), is used in what is 
probably its primitive sense of immersing in or covering 
with liquid. Thus we say to wash with gold or silver. 
So in Antony and Cleopatra, v. 1, Octavius, on being told 
of the death of Antony, exclaims, " It is a tidings To wash 
the eyes of kings." 

333. In states unborn. — The First Folio, and that only, 
has "In state unborn," — palpably a typographical error, 
and as such now given up by everybody, but a reading 
which Malone, in his abject subservience to the earliest 
text, actually retained, or restored, interpreting it as 
meaning "in theatric pomp as yet undisplayed." 

334. That now on JBompey's basis lies along. — At the 
base of Pompey's statue, as in 426. — In the copy of the 
First Folio before me it is " lye along ;" but I do not find 
such a variation anywhere noticed, — not even in Jen 
nens's collation. Lyes is the word in the Second Folio. 

335. The men that gave their country liberty. — This k 

Q 2 



228 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

the reading of all the old copies, which Mr Knight has re- 
stored, after their had been turned into our by the last 
century editors (Malone included), not only unnecessarily 
and unwarrantably, but also without notice. 

337. With the most boldest. — In the old version of the 
Psalms we are familiar with the form the most Highest ; 
and even in the authorized translation of the Eible we 
have, in Acts xxvi. 5, " the most straitest sect of our re- 
ligion." Nor is there anything intrinsically absurd in 
such a mode of expression. If we are not satisfied to con- 
sider it as merely an intensified superlative, we may say 
that the most boldest should mean those who are boldest 
among the boldest. So again in 426 ; " This was the most 
unkindest cut of all." In most cases, however, the double 
superlative must be regarded as intended merely to ex- 
press the extreme degree more emphatically. Double 
comparatives are very common in Shakespeare. 

339. Say, I love Brutus. — Mr Knight has, apparently 
by a typographical error, "I lov'd." 

339. May safely come to him, and be resolved. — That is, 
have his perplexity or uncertainty removed. We might 
still say, have his doubts resolved. But we have lost the 
more terse form of expression, by which the doubt was 
formerly identified with the doubter. So again, in 426, 
Caesar's blood is described by Antony as 

" — rushing out of doors, to be resolved 
If Brutus so unkindly knocked or no ;" 

and in 506 Brutus, referring to Cassius, asks of Lucilius, 
" How he received you, let me be resolved." — Mr Collier's 
MS. annotator appends the stage direction "Kneeling" 
to the first line of this speech, and "Rising" to the last. 

340. Tell him, so please him come unto this place. — For 
the meaning of so here, see the note on " So with love I 
might entreat you," in 57. There is an ellipsis of the 
usual nominative (it) before the impersonal verb (please)-, 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^SAE. 229 

and the infinitive come also wants the customary prefix to. 
"So please him come" is equivalent to If it please (or 
may please) him to come. 

342. I know that we shall have him well to friend. — So 
in Cymbeline, i. 5, Iaehimo says, " Had I admittance and 
opportunity to friend." So Macbeth (iii. .3), "What I 
can redress, As I shall find the time to friend, I will." 
Even in Clarendon we have, " For the King had no port 
to friend by which he could bring ammunition to Oxford," 
etc. — Hist., Boole vii. To friend is equivalent to for 
friend. So we say To talce to ivife. The German form 
of to (zu) is used in a somewhat similar manner: Das 
icird mich zu eurem Freunde machen (That will make me 
your friend). In the Winter's Tale, v. 1, We have "All 
greetings that a King at friend Can send his brother." 

343. Falls shrewdly to the purpose. — The purpose is the 
intention; to the purpose is according to the intention. 
as away from the purpose, or beside the purpose, is with- 
out any such coincidence or conformity ; and to fall 
shrewdly to the purpose may be explained as being to fall 
upon that which it is sought to hit with mischievous 
sharpness and felicity of aim. Vid. 186. 

344. The original heading is " Enter Antony" 

345. mighty Ccesar ! dost thou lie so low? — Mr Col- 
lier states, in his Notes and Emendations, p. 400, that a 
stage direction of his MS. annotator requires Antony, on 
his entrance with this line, to kneel over the body, and to 
rise when he comes to " I know not, gentlemen, what you 
intend," etc. 

345. Who else is rank. — Is of too luxuriant growth, 
too fast-spreading power in the commonwealth. 

345. As Ccesar 's death's hour. — This is the reading of 
all the old copies. Mr Collier prints " death hour." 

345. Nor no instrument.— Here the double negative, 
while it occasions no ambiguity, is palpably much more 
forcible than either and no ox nor any would have been. 



230 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III 

345. Of half that worth as.— Vid. 44. 

345. I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard. — See note on 
Bear me hard in 105. — The present line affords a remark- 
able illustration of how completely the old declension of 
the personal pronoun of the second person has become 
obliterated in our modern English. Milton too almost 
always has ye in the accusative. Thus (Par. Lost, x. 
402) :— " I call ye, and declare ye now, returned Suc- 
cessful beyond hope, to lead ye forth," etc. In the ori- 
ginal form of the language ye (ge) is always nominative, 
and you (eow) accusative ; being the very reverse of what 
we have here. 

345. Live a thousand years. — Suppose I live ; If I live ; 
Should I live. But, although the suppression of the con- 
ditional conjunction is common and legitimate enough, 
that of the pronoun, or nominative to the verb, is hardly 
so defensible. The feeling probably was that the 1 in the 
next line might serve for both verbs. 

345. So apt to die. — Apt is properly fit, or suited, 
generally, as here. So formerly they said to apt in the 
sense both of to adapt and of to agree. I apprehend, 
however, that such an expression as apt to die (for ready 
or prepared to die) would have been felt in any stage of 
the language to involve an unusual extension of the 
meaning of the word, sounding about as strange as aptus 
ad moriendum would do in Latin. We now, at all events, 
commonly understand the kind of suitableness or readiness 
implied in apt as being only that which consists in inclin- 
ation, or addictedness, or mere liability. Indeed, we 
usually say disposed or inclined in cases in which 
apt was the customary word in the English of the last 
century; as in Smollett's Count Fathom, Vol. II. ch. 27, 
"I am apt to believe it is the voice of heaven." By the 
substantive aptitude, again, we mostly understand an act- 
ive fitness. The word apte was wont to be not much used 
in French; some of the dictionaries do not notice it; 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C2SSAB. 231 

Richelet cliaracterizes it as obsolete ; adding, on the 
authority of Father Bouhours, that the noun aptitude is 
occasionally employed, although not considered to belong 
to the Court language. Like many other old-fashioned 
words, however, this has been revived by recent writers. 
Such expressions as " On est apte a juger," meaning 
" One has no difficulty in concluding," are common in 
modern books. 

345. As here, by Ccesar and by you, out off. — "\Ye may 
resolve the ellipsis by saying " as to be," or " as being cut 
off." And " hy Caesar " is, of course, beside Csesar ; " hy 
you," through your act or instrumentality. A play of 
words, as it is called, was by no means held in Shake- 
speare's day to be appropriate only to sportive writing, — 
any more than was any other species of verbal artifice or 
ornament, such, for instance, as alliteration, or rhyme, or 
verse itself. Whatever may be the etymology of hy, its 
primary meaning seems to be alongside of (the same, ap- 
parently, with that of the Greek irapa). It is only by 
inference that instrumentality is expressed either by it or 
by with (the radical notion involved in which appears to 
be that of joining or uniting)..: Fid, 620. 

345. The choice and "master spirits of this age. — Choice 
here may be understood either in the substantive sense 
as the elite, or, better perhaps, as an adjective in concord 
with spirits. 

346. Antony I teg not your death of us. — That is, If 
you prefer death, or if you are resolved upon death, let it 
not be of us that you ask it. The sequel of the speech 
seems decisive in regard to the us being the emphatic 
word. 

346. And this the Heeding "business.— Only a more vivid 
expression for the bloody business, the sanguinary act. 

346. Our hearts you see not, they are pitiful.— -Probably 
the primary sense of the Latin pins and pietas may have 
been nothing more than emotion, or affection, generally. 



232 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTAKY. [ACT III. 

But the words had come to be confined to the expression 
of reverential affection towards a superior, such as the 
gods or a parent. Prom pietas the Italian language has 
received pieta (anciently pietade), which has the senses 
both of reverence and of compassion. The [French have 
moulded the word into two forms, which (according to 
what frequently takes place in language) have been 
respectively appropriated to the two senses; and from 
their piete smipitie we have borrowed, and applied in the 
same manner, our piety and pity. To the former, more- 
over, we have assigned the adjective pious ; to the latter, 
piteous. But pity, which meant at one time reverence, 
and afterwards compassion, has come in some of its uses 
to suffer still further degradation. By pitiful (or full of 
pity) Shakespeare, as we see here, means full of compas- 
sion ; but the modern sense of pitiful is contemptible or 
despicable. "Pity," it has been said, or sung, "melts 
the soul to love ;" but this would seem to show that it is 
also near akin to a very different passion. And, instead 
of turning to love, it would seem more likely that it 
should sometimes pass on from contempt to aversion and 
hatred. In many cases, too, when we say that we pity 
an individual, we mean that we despise or loathe him. 

346. As fire drives out fire, so pity pity. — In this line 
the first fire is a dissyllable (like hour in 256), the second 
a monosyllable. The illustration we have here is a fa- 
vourite one with Shakespeare. " Tut, man," says Benvolio 
to his friend Romeo (Borneo and Juliet, i. 2), 

ie — one fire burns out another's burning, 

One pain is lessened by another's anguish." 

" One fire burns out one fire ; one nail, one nail," 

exclaims Tullus Aufidius, in Coriolanus (iv. 7). But we 
have the thought most fully expressed in the soliloquy of 
Proteus in the Fourth Scene of the Second Act of The 
Two Gentlemen of Verona : — 



SC. 1.] JTLITS C-SSAB. 233 

" Even as one heat another heat expels, 
Or as one nail by strength drives out another, 
So the remembrance of my former love 
Is by a newer object quite forgotten." 

This is probably also the thought which we have in the 
heroic Bastard's exhortation to his uncle, in King John, 
v. 1:— 

" Be stirring as the time ; be fire with fire ; 
Threaten the threatener ; " etc. 

346. For your part. — ~We should not now use this 
phrase in the sense which it has here (in so far as regards 
you). 

346. Our arms, in strength of welcome. — The reading 
in all the old printed copies is, " in strength of malice." 
Steevens interprets this, " strong in the deed of malice 
they have just performed," and Malone accepts the ex- 
planation as a very happy one. But who can believe that 
Brutus would ever have characterized the lofty patriotic 
passion by which he and his associates had been impelled 
and nerved to their great deed as strength of malice ? It 
is simply impossible. The earlier editors, accordingly, 
seeing that the passage as it stood was nonsense, attempted 
to correct it conjecturally in various ways. Pope boldly 
printed "exempt from malice." Cap el, more ingeniously, 
proposed "no strength of malice," connecting the words, 
not with those that follow, but with those that precede. 
But the mention of malice at all is manifestly in the 
highest degree unnatural. Nevertheless the word has 
stood in every edition down to that in one volume pro- 
duced by Mr Collier in 1853 ; and there, for the first 
time, instead of " strength of malice" we have " strength 
of ivelcome." This turns the nonsense into excellent sense ; 
and the two words are by no means so unlike as that, in 
a cramp hand or an injured or somewhat faded page, the 
one might not easily have been mistaken by the first printer 
or editor for the other. The "welcome" would probably 



234 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

be written welcoe. Presuming the correction to have 
been made on documentary authority, it is one of the most 
valuable for which we are indebted to the old annotator. 
Even as a mere conjecture, it would be well entitled to 
notice and consideration. 

346. Of brothers' temper. — Brothers, that is, to one 
another (not to you, Antony). 

348. Beside themselves. — Other forms of the same 
figure are Out of themselves, Out of their senses. And in 
the same notion we say of a person whose mind is de- 
ranged that he is not himself. 

348. And then we will deliver you the cause. — The his- 
tory of the word deliver (properly to set free, to let go 
forth, and hence, as applied to what is expressed in words, 
to declare, to pronounce) presents some points worthy of 
notice. In Latin (besides liber, bark, or a book, and its 
derivative deTibrare, to peel off, with which we have at 
present no concern), there are the adjective liber, free 
(to which liber i, children, no doubt belongs), and the 
substantive libra, signifying both a balance and the weight 
which we call a pound or twelve ounces. "Whether liber 
and libra be connected may be doubted. The Greek form 
of libra, \trpa, and the probable identity of liber with 
iXevdepoQ are rather against the supposition that they are. 
At the same time, that which is free, whether understood 
as meaning that which is free to move in any direction, 
or that which hangs even and without being inclined 
more to one side than another, would be a natural enough 
description of a balance. And libra (a balance), it may 
be added, had anciently also the form of libera. At any 
rate, from liber, free, we have the verb liberare, to make 
free ; and from libra, a balance, or weight, librare, to 
weigh. 

So far all is regular and consistent. But then, when 
we come to the compound verb deliberare, we find that it 
takes its signification (arid must therefore have taken it3 



1.] jriirs cjssab. 235 

origin), not from liberare and Viler, but from librare and 
III r a ; it means, not to free, but to weigh. And. such 
being the state of things in the Latin language, the French 
has from deliberare formed dililerer, having the same sig- 
nification (to weigh).; but it has also from liber formed 
another verb delivrer, vdth the sense of to free. From 
the French deliberer and delivrer vre have, in like manner. 
in English, and with the same significations, deliberate and 
deliver. Thus the deviation begun in the Latin deliberare 
has been earned out and generalized, till the derivatives 
from liber have assumed the form that would have been 
more proper for those from libra, as the latter had pre- 
viously usurped that belonging to the former. 

It is from deliver, no doubt, that we have fabricated 
our modern abbreviation clever. The ancient forms for 
what we now call clever and cleverly were deliver and de- 
livery . Thus in Chaucer (Prol. to C. I. 84), the Knight's 
son. the young Squire, is described as "wonderly deliver, 
and grete of strengthe;" and in the Nuns' Priest's Tale 
of the Cock and the Fox (G T. 15,422), we have — 

" The Fox answered. In faith i: shal be don : 
And, as lie spake :Le word, al sodenly 

The Cok brake from his mouth delicerly, 
And high upon a tree he new anon." 

Deliver, rapidly pronounced, became dliver or dlever, and 
that was inevitably converted into clever by the euphonic 
genius of the language, in which such a combination as 
d.l cannot live.* 

* According, indeed, to Dr Webster, — who. however, gives no hint 
of the above etymology. — clever would be actually only another way of 
writing tlever. One of his rules (the 23rd) for English pronunciation 
is as follows: — "The letters cl, answering to A7, are pronounced as if 
written tl : dear, clean are pronounced tlear, dean. Gl are pronounced 
as dl : glory is pronounced dlory" I transcribe this from the edition 
of the "Dictionary of the English Language. " in 2 vols. 4to. Lou. 1S32, 
professing to be " reprinted by E. EL Barker, Esq.. of Thetford, Nor- 
folk, from a copy communicated by the author, and containing many 



236 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEKTAET. [ACT III. 

Somewhat curious, too, are the variations of import 
through which the word clever has passed, or among 
which it still wanders. Johnson, after giving its modern 
or common signification as " dexterous, skilful," and no- 
ticing that Pope has used it in the sense of "just, fit," 
and Arbuthnot in that of " well-shaped," concludes by 
describing it as "a low word applied to anything a man 
likes, without a settled meaning." "Webster, omitting 
" well-shaped," gives the New England sense, " good-na- 
tured, amiable ;" and then adds : — " In some of the United 
States, it is said, this word is applied to the intellect, de- 
noting ingenious, knowing, discerning." This last, it 
need scarcely be observed, is in fact nearly the modern 
sense of the word in England. The American lexicogra- 
pher erroneously supposes that its use in Great Britain 
is distinguished from its use in America by its being in 
the former country "applied to the body or its move- 
ments/' 

348. When I struck him. — In the original printed text 
it is " strooke him." 

349. Let each man render me his lloody hand. — Give 
me back in return for mine. Here, according to the stage 
direction of Mr Collier's MS. annotator, Antony " takes 
one after another of the conspirators by the hand, and 
turns to the body, and bends over it, while he says, 
' That I did love thee, Cassar, ! 'tis true,'" etc. 

manuscript corrections and additions." The American lexicographer's 
sense of hearing would appear to have been peculiarly constituted. 
Another thing that he tells us is, that, when he was in England, he 
paid particular attention to the practice of public speakers in regard to 
the sound of the vowel u, and was happy to find that very few of them 
made any distinction between the u in such words as cube or duke and 
the u in rude or true. I do not know whether he means to say that 
he found cube to be generally called coob, or rude to be pronounced as if 
it were written ryude. What is most surprising is that all this should 
have been reproduced by an English editor without either a word of 
dissent or so much as a note of admiration. 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^SAE. 237 

319. Will I shake with you. — It is not to be supposed 
that there was anything undignified in this phraseology 
in Shakespeare's age. 

349. Though last, not least. — So in King Lear, i. 1, 
"Although the last, not least in our dear loye;" as is 
noted by Maione, who adds that "the same expression 
occurs more than once in Plays exhibited before the time 
of Shakespeare." "We have it also in the passage of 
Spenser's Colin Chiefs Come Home Again in which 
Shakespeare has been supposed to be referred to : — 

" And there, though, last, not least, is JEtion ; 
A gentler shepherd may no where he found ; 
"Whose muse, full of high thought's invention, 
Doth like himself heroically sound." 

This poem was published in 1595. 

349. You must conceit me. — Yid. 1<*2. 

349. Shall it not grieve thee dearer than thy death ? — 
Of this use of dear we haye several other instances in 
Shakespeare. One of the most remarkable is in Hamlet, 
i. 2, where Hamlet exclaims — 

" Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven 
Ere I had seen that day ! " 

Home Tooke (Div. of Purley, 612, etc.) makes a plausi- 
ble case in favour of dear being derived from the ancient 
verb derian, to hurt, to annoy, and of its proper meaning 
being, therefore, injurious or hateful. His notion seems 
to be that from this derian we have dearth, meaning pro- 
perly that sort of injury which is done by the weather, 
and that, a usual consequence of dearth being to make 
the produce of the earth high-priced, the adjective dear 
has thence taken its common meaning of precious. This 
is not all distinctly asserted ; but what of it may not be 
explicitly set forth is supposed and implied. It is, how- 
ever, against an explanation which has been generally 
accepted, that there is no appearance of connexion between 
derian and the contemporary word answering to dear in 



238 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

the sense of high-priced, precious, beloved, which is deore, 
dure, or dyre, and is evidently from the same root, not with 
derian, but with deoran, or dyran, to hold dear, to love. 
There is no doubt about the existence of an old English 
verb dere, meaning to hurt, the unquestionable represent- 
ative of the original derian : thus in Chaucer ( C. T. 
1824) Theseus says to Palamon and Arcite, in the 
Knight's Tale :— 

"And ye shul hothe anon unto me swere 
That never mo ye shul my contree dere, 
Ne maken werre upon me night ne day, 
But ben my frendes in alle that ye may.'* 

But perhaps we may get most easily and naturally at the 
sense which dear sometimes assumes by supposing that 
the notion properly involved in it of love, having first 
become generalized into that of a strong affection of any 
kind, had thence passed on into that of such an emotion 
the very reverse of love. "We seem to have it in the in- 
termediate sense in such instances as the following : — 

" Some dear cause 
"Will in concealment wrap me up a while." — Lear, iv. 3. 

u A precious ring ; a ring that I must use 
In dear employment." — Romeo and Juliet, v. 3. 

And even when Hamlet speaks of his "dearest foe," or 
when Celia remarks to Kosalind, in As You Like It, i. 3, 
"My father hated his [Orlando's] father dearly," the 
word need not be understood as implying more than 
strong or passionate emotion. 

349. Sere wast thou hayed. — So afterwards, in 498, 
" We are at the stake, And bayed about with many ene- 
mies. " It is not clear, however, in what sense the verb 
to he hayed is used in these passages. Does it mean to 
be embayed, or enclosed ? or to be barked at ? or to be 
made to stand, as it is phrased, at bay ? The hays in these 
expressions appear to be all different words. According 
to Home Tooke, to hay, meaning to enclose, undoubtedly 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^SAE. 239 

the same with a hay of the sea, is from the ancient hygan, to 
bend, and is essentially the same with both how amdhough. 
This is also, of conrse, the hay which we have in hay- 
window. — Div. of Burley, 464, 465. To hay, meaning to 
bark, again, Tooke conceives to be the same element 
which we have in the Greek (ioau) (to call aloud, to roar), 
as well as in the Italian abhaiare and the French aboyer, 
and, understood as meaning to cry down, to vilify, to re- 
proach, to express abhorrence, aversion, and defiance, to 
be the root of had (qnasi hayed), of hane (hay en), of the 
verb to han, and of the Trench has and its English deriva- 
tive hase. — Id. 357. — As for at hay, it is evidently the 
French aux ahois, meaning in extremity, at the last gasp ; 
and, whatever ahois may be, it does not appear how it can 
have anything to do with aboyer, to bark. There are 
also to be accounted for the hay, a name for the laurel, 
and the colour called hay, applied to a horse, to salt, and 
to woollen thread. A division of a house or other build- 
ing was formerly called a hay ; as in Measure for Measure, 
ii. 1 : — "If this law hold in Vienna ten years, I'll rent the 
fairest house in it after threepence a bay." For this, and 
also Bay-ivindow, see Nares. In Boucher (or rather in the 
additions by his editors) will be found the further mean- 
ings of a boy, a stake, a berry, the act of baiting with dogs, 
round, to bend, and to obey. Spenser uses to hay for to 
hathe. In The Taming of the Shrew, v. 2, we have the 
unusual form at a hay : — " 'Tis thought your deer does 
hold you at a bay." 

349. Signed in thy spoil, and crimsoned in thy death. 
— Instead of death the First Folio has Lethee, the others 
Lethe ; and the passage is explained as meaning marked 
and distinguished by being arrayed in thy spoils (the 
power in the commonwealth which was thine), and 
made crimson by being as it were bathed in thy shed 
blood. But Steevens's note is entirely unsatisfactory: 
" Lethe" he says, " is used by many of the old translators 



240 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

of novels for death ; " and then he gives as an example 
the folio wing sentence from the Second Part of Hev- 
wood's Iron Age, printed in 1632 : — 

"The proudest nation that great Asia nursed 
Is now extinct in let he.'* 

Here lethe may plainly be taken in its proper and usual 
sense of forgetfulness, oblivion. No other example is pro- 
duced either by the commentators or by Nares. Shake- 
speare, too, repeatedly uses lethe, and nowhere, unless it 
be in this passage, in any other than its proper sense. If, 
however, lethe and lethum (or letum), — which may, or may 
not, be connected, — were really sometimes confounded by 
the popular writers of the early part of the seventeenth 
century, they are kept in countenance by the commenta- 
tors of the eighteenth. Steevens goes on to notice, as 
affording another proof that lethe sometimes signified 
death, the following line from Cupid's Whirligig, printed 
in 1616 :— 

" For vengeance' wings bring on thy lethal day ; " 

and he adds : — " Dr Earmer observes, that we meet with 
lethal for deadly in the Information for Mungo Campbell." 
It is not easy to understand this. Who ever doubted 
that deadly was the proper meaning of lethalis (from 
lethum) ? But what has that to do with the signification 
of lethe ? I do not know what it is that may have led 
Wares to imagine that, when lethe meant death, it was 
pronounced as a monosyllable. Seeing, however, that 
the notion of its ever having that signification appears to 
be a mere delusion, I have followed Mr Collier in sup- 
posing it to be here a misprint for death, which was the 
obvious conjecture of several of the editors of the last 
century, and is sanctioned by the authority of his MS. 
annotator. 

349. StrucJcen by many princes. — It is stroken in the 
original edition. — In the preceding line, also, " the heart 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^ISAK. 241 

of thee" is there misprinted "the hart of thee.' 3 But 
the two words are repeatedly thus confounded in the 
spelling in that edition. — Mr Collier strangely prefers 
making this exclamation, " How like a deer," etc., an in- 
terrogatory — as if Antony asked the dead body in how 
far, or to what precise degree, it resembled a deer, lying 
as it did stretched out before him. 

351. The enemies of Ccesar shall say this. — Here again, 
as in " This shall mark Our purpose necessary " of 187, 
we have a use of shall, which now only remains with us, 
if at all, as an imitation of the archaic. Vid. 181. A 
singular consequence has arisen from the change that has 
taken place. By " shall say this " in the present passage 
Shakespeare meant no more than would now be expressed 
by " will say this ; " yet to us the shall elevates the ex- 
pression beyond its original import, giving it something, 
if not quite of a prophetic, yet of an impassioned, wrapt, 
and as it were vision- seeing character. 

352. But what compact. — Compact has always, I be- 
lieve, the accent upon the final syllable in Shakespeare, 
whether used as a substantive, as a verb, or as a parti- 
ciple. 

352. Will you be pricked in number of our friends ?— 
To prick is to note or mark off. The Sheriffs are still so 
nominated by a puncture or mark being made at the 
selected names in the list of qualified persons, and this is 
the vox siynata, or established word, for the operation. 

353. Swayed from the point. — Borne away, as by a 
wave, from the point which I had in view and for which 
I was making. 

353. Friends am I with you all. — " This grammatical 
impropriety," Henley very well remarks, " is still so preva- 
lent, as that the omission of the anomalous s would give 
some uncouthness to the sound of an otherwise familiar 
expression." We could not, indeed, say " Friend am I 

E 



242 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

with you all ; " we should have to turn the expression in 
some other way. In Troilus and Cressida, iv. 4, however, 
we have "And I'll grow friend with danger." Nor does 
the pluralism of friends depend upon that of you all : 
" I am friends with you " is equally the phrase in ad- 
dressing a single person. / with you am is felt to be 
equivalent to I and you are. 

354. Our reasons are so full of good regard. — So full 
of what is entitled to favourable regard. Compare " many 
of the best respect " in 48. 

354. That, were you, Antony, the son of Ccesar. — By 
all means to be thus pointed, so as to make Antony the 
vocative, the name addressed ; not, as it sometimes 
ludicrously is, "were you Antony the son of Csesar." 
Son, of course, is emphatic. 

355. Produce his body to the market-place. — We now 
say " produce to " with a person only. 

355. Speak in the order of his funeral. — In the order is 
in the course of the ceremonial. — Compare "That Antony 
speak in his funeral," in 357; and " Come I to speak in 
Caesar's funeral," in 398. 

357. The Aside here is not marked in the old copies. 

358. By your pardon. — I will explain, by, or with, your 
pardon, leave, permission. " By your leave " is still oc- 
casionally used. 

358. Have all true rites. — This is the reading of all the 
old copies. For true Pope substituted due, which is also 
the correction of Mr Collier's MS. annotator. 

358. It shall advantage more than do us wrong. — This 
old verb, to advantage, is fast slipping out of our posses- 
sion. — Here again we have, according to the old grammar, 
simple futurity indicated by shall with the third person. 
— Vid. 181. 

359. I know not what may fall. — "We now commonly 
say to fall out, rather than simply to fall, or to befall. 



SC. 1.] JT7LITTS OESAE. 248 

360. You shall not in your funeral speech blame us. — 
The sense and the prosody concur in demanding an em- 
phasis on us. 

360. And say you do H. — We do not now in serious or 
elevated writing use this kind of contraction. 

362. The original stage direction after this speech is, 
" Exeunt. Manet Antony." 

363. pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth. — So in 
all the early editions, and also in the greater number of 
those of the last century ; but unaccountably altered into 
" thou piece of bleeding earth " in the Variorum edition 
of Malone and Bo swell, the text of which was generally 
taken as the standard for subsequent reprints, till the true 
reading was restored by Mr Knight. 

363. That ever lived in the tide of times. — This must 
mean, apparently, in the course or flow of times. Tide 
and time, however, properly mean the same thing. Tide 
is only another form of Zeit, the German word answer- 
ing to our English time. Time, again, is the French terns, 
or temps, a corruption of the Latin tempus (which has 
also in one of its senses, the part of the head where time 
is indicated to the touch by the pulsations of the blood, 
been strangely corrupted, both in French and English, 
into temple, — distinguished, however, in the former tongue 
from temple, a church, by a difference of gender, and also 
otherwise written tempe). 

363. A curse shall light upon the loins of men. — This 
is one of the most remarkable of the new readings for 
which we are indebted to Mr Collier's MS. annotator. 
The old printed text, " the limbs of men," was felt by 
every editor not enslaved to the First Folio to be in 
the highest degree suspicious. By most of them the 
limbs of men seems to have been understood to mean no- 
thing more than the bodies or persons of men generally. 
Steevens, however, says ; — " Antony means that a future 
curse shall commence in distempers seizing on the limbs 

b 2 



244 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEXTAEY. [ACT III. 

of men, and be succeeded by commotion, cruelty, and de- 
solation over Italy." A strangely precise style of pro- 
phecy ! For limbs Warburton proposed to substitute 
line, Hanmer hind, and Johnson lives, — "unless,' 5 he 
adds, " we read these lynimes of men, that is, these blood- 
hounds of men." The lymm, lym, lime, limer, or lime- 
hound was used in hunting the wild boar. The loins of 
men means, of course, the generations of men. Even if 
proposed as nothing more, this would have been one of 
the most plausible of conjectures, and would probably 
have at once commanded general acceptance. Warburton 
hit upon nearly what seems to have been the meaning of 
Shakespeare with his line of men; but how much less 
Shakespearian the expression ! 

383. Quartered with the hands of war. — So afterwards, 
in 426, " Here is himself, marred, as you see, with trait- 
ors." Vid. 124. We should now rather regard the 
hands as the agents, and say " by the hands of war." 

363. With Ate by his side. — This Homeric goddess 
had taken a strong hold of Shakespeare's imagination. 
In Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 1, Benedick, inveighing 
to Don Pedro against the Lady Beatrice, says, "Ton 
shall find her the infernal Ate in good apparel." In King 
John, iv. 1, John's mother, Queen Elinor, is described by 
Chatillon as "an Ate stirring him to blood and strife." 
And in Lovers Labour's Lost, v. 2, Biron, at the representa- 
tion of the Nine Worthies, calls out " More Ates, more 
Ates ; stir them on! stir them on!" Where did Shake- 
speare get acquainted with this divinity, whose name does 
not occur, I believe, even in any Latin author ? 

363. Cry Havoc ! — Havoc is the Original English hafoc, 
meaning waste, destruction ; whence the hawk, so called 
as the bird of waste and ravage. Johnson states on the 
authority of a learned correspondent (known to be Sir 
William Blackstone), that, "in the military operations of 
old times, havoc was the word by which declaration was 



sc. 1.] JULIUS OUSAB. 2-15 

made that no quarter should be given." Milton in one 
place makes a verb of this substantive : — ' ; To waste and 
havoc yonder world" {Par. Lost, x. 617). 

383. Let slip tlie dogs of war. — Notwithstanding the 
apparently considerable difference between schlupfen and 
sehlafen, by which they are severally represented in 
modern German, slip may possibly have been originally 
the same word with sleep. In the English of the time be- 
fore the Conquest, although the common form is slcepan 
for to sleep and slipan for to slip, we find indications of 
depart having been used for both. To sleep, or fall asleep, 
may have been regarded as a gliding, or softly moving, 
away. — To let slip a dog at a deer, etc., was, as Malone 
remarks, the technical phrase of Shakespeare' s time. Hence 
the leash, out of which it was thus allowed to escape, was 
called the slips. The proper meaning, indeed, of leash (in 
French lesse, or laisse, from laisser) is that which lets go ; 
and this is probably also the true meaning of the Spanish 
lasso ; although, that which lets go, or from which we let 
go, being also necessarily that which has previously de- 
tained, lesse, lasso, leash, and also lease, have all, as well 
as slip, come to be regarded as involving rather the latter 
notion (of detention or tenure), that being really the 
principal or most important office which what is called a 
slip or leash seems to perform. It was perhaps in this 
way also that the verb to let acquired the sense (now 
nearly obsolete) of to hinder, as well as its more ordinary 
sense of to permit. 

It is observed by Steele in The Taller, JS T o. 137, that 
by "the dogs of war" Shakespeare probably meant^re, 
sword, and famine, according to what is said in the Chorus 
to Act First of King Henry the Fifth :— 

" Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, 
Assume the port of Mars ; and, at his heels, 
Leashed in like hounds, should Famine, Sword, and Fire 
Crouch for employment." 



246 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

To this we might add what Talbot says, in the First Part 
of King Henry the Sixth, iv. 2, to the Captains of the 
French forces before Bordeaux : — 

"You tempt the fury of ray three attendants, 
Lean Famine, quartering Steel, and climbing Fire." 

In illustration of the passage from Henry the Fifth Stee- 
vens quotes what Holinshed makes that King to have 
said to the people of Eoan (or Rouen) : — " He declared 
that the Goddess of Battle, called Bellona, had three 
handmaidens ever of necessity attending upon her, as 
Blood, Fire, and Famine." And at that from Henry 
the Sixth Malone gives the following extract from Hall's 
Chronicle : — " The Goddess of "War, called Bellona, . . . 
hath these three handmaids ever of necessity attending 
on her ; Blood, Fire, and Famine ; which three damosels 
be of that force and strength that every one of them alone 
is able and sufficient to torment and afflict a proud 
prince ; and they all joined together are of puissance to 
destroy the most populous country and most richest 
region of the world." 

It might, perhaps, be questioned whether the words, 
" And let slip the dogs of war " ought not to be con- 
sidered as also part of the exclamation of Caesar's spirit. 

363. That this foul deed, etc. — So that. 

363. With carrion men. — Vid. 177. — The stage direc- 
tion in the original edition is " Enter Octavio's Ser- 
vant." 

363. You serve Octavius Ccesar. — So called throughout 
both this Play and that of Antony and Cleopatra. He was 
properly now Ccesar Octavianus. 

366. The stage direction, Seeing the Body, is modern. 

367. For mine eyes. — This, which is clearly right, is the 
reading of the Second Folio. The First has " Passion I 
see is catching from mine eyes." 

369. Tell him what hath chanced. — Vid. 69. 



SC. 2.] JTLIUS CJESAE. 217 

369. JS T o Borne of safety.— Vid. 56. 

369. Till I have borne this corpse. — Corpse (or corse) 
here is a modern conjectural substitution for the course 
of the First and Second Polios and the coarse of the Third 
and Fourth. 

369. The cruel issue of these Woody men. — The result or 
end which they have brought about. 

369. According to the which. — This archaism occurs 
occasionally in Shakespeare, as it does also in the common 
translation of the Scriptures :— " Every tree in the which 
is the fruit of a tree yielding seed" (Gen. i. 29). 

369. Lend one your hand. — ¥e should now rather say 
a hand. — The stage direction that follows is in the ori- 
ginal edition, "Exeunt. Enter Brutus and goes into the 
Pulpit, and Cassius with the Plebeians" 

SCENE II.— The same. The Forum. 

Enter Brutus and Cassius, and a throng of Citizens. 

370. Cit. We will be satisfied ; let us be satisfied. 

371. Bru. Then follow me, and give me audience, friends. — 
Cassius, go you into the other street, 

And part the numbers. — 

Those that will hear me speak, let 'em stay here ; 
Those that will follow Cassius, go with him ; 
And public reasons shall be rendered 
Of Caesar's death. 
1 Cit. I will hear Brutus speak. 

373. 2 Cit. I will hear Cassius ; and compare their reasons, 
"When severally we hear them rendered. 

[Exit Cassius, with some of the Citizens. 
Brutus goes into the Rostrum. 

374. 3 Cit. The noble Brutus is ascended : Silence ! 

375. Bru. Be patient till the last. 

Romans, countrymen, and lovers ! hear me for my cause ; and be 
silent, that you may hear : believe me for mine honour ; and have 
respect to mine honour, that you may believe : censure me in your 
wisdom ; and awake your senses, that you may the better judge. 
If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar's, to him 
I say, that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less than his. If, then, 



213 PHILOLOGICAL COAtME^TABY. [ACT III. 

that friend demand, why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my an- 
swer; — Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. 
Had you rather Caesar were living, and die all slaves, than that 
Caesar were dead, to live all freemen ? As Caesar loved me, I weep 
for him ; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I 
honour' him : but, as he was ambitious. I slew him. There is tears, 
for his love; joy, for his fortune; honour, for his valour; and 
death, for his ambition. "Who is here so base, that would be a bond- 
man? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so 
rude, that would not be a Roman ? If any, speak ; for him have I 
offended. Who is here so vile, that will not love his country ? If 
any, speak ; for him have I offended. I pause for a reply. 

376. Cit. None, Brutus, none. [Several speaking at once. 

377. Bru. Then none have I offended. I have done no more to 
Caesar than you shall do to Brutus. The question of his death is 
enrolled in the Capitol : his glory not extenuated, wherein he was 
worthy ; nor his offences enforced, for which he suffered death. 

Enter Antony and others, with CiESAK's Body. 
Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony : who, though he 
had no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying, a 
place in the commonwealth ; as which of you shall not ? With this I 
depart ; That, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have 
the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need 
my death. 

Cit. Live, Brutus, live ! live ! 

1 Cit. Bring him with triumph home unto his house. 

2 Cit. Give him a statue with his ancestors. 

3 Cit. Let him be Caesar. 
382. 4 Cit. Caesar's better parts 

Shall now be crowned in Brutus. 

1 Cit. We'll bring him to his house with shouts and clamours. 
Bru. My countrymen, 

2 Cit. Peace ; silence ! Brutus speaks. 
1 Cit. Peace, ho ! 

387- Bru. Good countrymen, let me depart alone, 
And, for my sake, stay here with Antony : 
Do grace to Caesar's corpse, and grace his speech 
Tending to Caesar's glories ; which Mark Antony, 
By our permission, is allowed to make. 
I do entreat you, not a man depart, 

Save I alone, till Antony have spoke. [Exit. 

1 Cit. Stay, ho ! and ^et us hear Mark Antony. 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CJSSAE. 249 

3 Cit. Let him go up into the public chair ; 
We'll hear him : — Xoble Antony, go up. 

390. Ant. For Brutus' sake, I am beholden to you. 

4 Cit. What does he say of Brutus ? 

3 Cit. He says, for Brutus' sake, 
He finds himself beholden to us all. 

4 Cit. 'Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here. 

1 Cit. This Caesar was a tyrant. 
395. 3 Cit. Nay, that's certain : 

We are blest that Rome is rid of him. 

2 Cit. Peace, let us hear what Antony can say. 
Ant. You gentle Eomans, 

Cit. Peace, ho ! let us hear him. 
399. Ant. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears • 

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. 

The evil that men do lives after them ; 

The good is oft interred with their bones : 

So let it be with C&esar. The noble Brutus 

Hath told you, Caesar was ambitious : 
. If it were so, it was a grievous fault ; 

And grievously hath Caesar answered it. 

Here, under leave of Brutus, and the rest 

(For Brutus is an honourable man ; 

So are they all, all honourable men), 

Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral. 

He was my friend, faithful and just to me : 

But Brutus says, he was ambitious ; 

And Brutus is an honourable man. 

He hath brought many captives home to Rome, 

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill : 

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious r 

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept : 

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. 

Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious ; 

And Brutus is an honourable man. 

You all did see, that on the Lupercal 

I thrice presented him a kingly crown, 

Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition ? 

Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious ; 

And, sure, he is an honourable man. 

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, 

But here I am to speak what I do know. 

\ You all did love him once, not without cause ; 



250 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him ? 

judgment, thou art fled to "brutish beasts. 
And men have lost their reason ! — Bear with me ; 
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, 

And I must pause till it come back to me. 

1 Cit. Methinks, there is much reason in his sayings. 

2 Cit. If thou consider rightly of the matter, 
Caesar has had great wrong. 

3 Cit. Has he not, master ? 

1 fear, there will a worse come in his place. 

403. 4 Cit. Marked ye his words ? He would not take the crown ; 
Therefore, 'tis certain he was not ambitious. 

404. 1 Cit. If it be found so, some will dear abide it. 

2 Cit. Poor soul ! his eyes are red as fire with weeping. 

3 Cit. There's not a nobler man in Rome than Antony. 

4 Cit. Now mark him, he begins again to speak. 
408. Ant. But yesterday, the word of Caesar might 

Have stood against the world : now lies he there, 

And none so poor to do him reverence. 

Oh masters ! if I were disposed to stir 

Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, 

I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, 

Who, you all know, are honourable men : 

I will not do them wrong ; I rather choose 

To wrong the dead, to wrong myself, and you, 

Than I will wrong such honourable men. 

But here's a parchment, with the seal of Caesar; 

I found it in his closet ; 'tis his will : 

Let but the commons hear this testament 

(Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read), 

And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, 

And dip their napkins in his sacred blood ; 

Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, 

And, dying, mention it within their wills, 

Bequeathing it, as a rich legacy, 

Unto their issue. 

4 Cit. We'll hear the will : Bead it, Mark Antony. 

Cit. The will, the will: we will hear Caesar's will. 

Ant. Have patience, gentle friends ; I must not read it ; 
It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you. 
You are not wood, you are not stones, but men ; 
And, being men, hearing the will of Caesar, 
It will inflame you, it will make you mad. 



sc. 2.] jULirs c^sae. 251 

'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs ; 
For if you should, 0, what would come of it ! 

412. 4 Cit. Bead the will; we will hear it, Antony; you shall read 
us the will ; Caesar's will. 

413. Ant. Will you he patient ? "Will you stay a while ? 
I have overshot myself," to tell you of it. 

I fear, I wrong the honourahle men, 

Whose daggers have stabbed Caesar : I do fear it. 

4 Cit. They were traitors : Honourahle men ! 

Cit. The will ! the testament ! 

2 Cit. They were villains, murderers : The will, read the will ! 
Ant. You will compel me, then, to read the will ? 

Then make a ring about the corpse of Caesar, 
And let me show you him that made the will. 
Shall I descend ? And will you give me leave ? 
Cit. Come down. 
419. 2 Cit. Descend. [He comes down from, the pulpit. 

3 Cit. You shall have leave. 

4 Cit. A ring ; stand round. 

422. 1 Cit. Stand from the hearse, stand from the body. 

2 Cit. Room for Antony ; — most noble Antony. 

Ant. Nay, press not so upon me ; stand far off. 

Cit. Stand back ! room ! bear back ! 
426. Ant. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. 
You all do know this mantle : I remember 
The first time ever Caesar put it on ; 
'Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent, 
That day he overcame the Nervii : — 
Look! in this place, ran Cassius' dagger through : 
See, what a rent the envious Casca made : 
Through this, the well-beloved Brutus stabbed ; 
And, as he plucked his cursed steel away, 
Mark how the blood of Caesar followed it ; 
As rushing out of doors, to be resolved 
If Brutus so unkindly knocked, or no ; 
For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel: 
Judge, you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him ! 
This was the most unkindest cut of all : 
For, when the noble Caesar saw him stab, 
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms, 
Quite vanquished him : then burst his mighty heart ; 
And, in his mantle muffling up his face, 
Even at the base of Pompey's statue, 



252 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEKTAEY. [ACT III. 

Which all the while ran blood, great Csesar fell. 
0, what a fall was there, my countrymen ! 
Then I, and yon, and all of ns fell down, 
Whilst bloody treason flourished over us. 
0, now you weep ; and, I perceive, you feel 
The dint of pity : these are gracious drops. 
Kind souls, what, weep you, when you but behold 
Our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look you here, 
Here is himself, marred, as you see, with traitors. 

1 Cit. piteous spectacle ! 

2 Cit. noble Csesar ! 

3 Cit. woeful day ! 

4 Cit. traitors, villains ! 

1 Cit. most bloody sight ! 

2 Cit. We will be revenged; revenge; about, — seek, — bum, — 
fire, — kill, — slay ! — let not a traitor live. 

433. Ant. Stay, countrymen. 

1 Cit. Peace there : — Hear the noble Antony. 

2 Cit. We'll hear him, we'll follow him, we'll die with him. 
436. Ant. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up 

To such a sudden flood of mutiny. 

They that have done this deed are honourable ; 

What private griefs they have, alas, I know not, 

That made them do it ; they are wise and honourable, 

And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you. 

I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts : 

I am no orator, as Brutus is ; 

But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man, 

That love my friend ; and that they know full well 

That gave me public leave to speak of him. 

For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, 

Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, 

To stir men's blood : I only speak right on; 

I tell you that which you yourselves do know ; 

Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths, 

And bid them speak for me : But, were I Brutus, 

And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony 

Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue 

In every wound of Caesar, that should move 

The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny. 

Cit. We'll mutiny. 

1 Cit. We'll burn the house of Brutus. 

3 Cit. Away, then, come, seek the conspirators. 



SC. 2.] JULIUS GJESAB. 233 

Ant. Yet hear me, countrymen ; yet hear me speak. 

Cit* Peace, lio ! Hear Antony, most noble Antony. 

Ant. Why, friend?, you go to do yon know not what : 
"Wherein hath Csesar thus deserved your loves ? 
Alas, you know not : — I must tell vou, then : — 
You ha\e forgot the will I told you of. 

Cit. Most true ; — the will; — let's stay, and hear the will. 
444. Ant. Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal. 
To every Eoman citizen he gives, 
To every several man. seventy-five drachmas. 

2 Cit. Most noble Caesar ! — we'll revenge his death. 

3 Cit. royal Caesar ! 

Ant. Hear me with patience. 
Cit. Peace, ho ! 

449. Ant. Moreover, he hath left you all his walks, 
His private arbours, and new-planted orchards, 
On this side Tiber ; he hath left them you, 
And to your heirs for ever ; common pleasures. 
To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves. 

Here was a Csesar : When comes such another ? 

450. 1 Cit. Never, never ! — Come, away, away ! 
We'll burn his body in the holy place, 

And with the brands fire the traitors' houses. 
Take up the body. 

2 Cit. Go, fetch fire. 

3 Cit. Pluck down benches. 

4 Cit. Pluck down forms, windows, anything. 

[Exeunt Citizens, with the body 
454. Ant. Now let it work: Mischief, thou art afoot. 
Take thou what course thou wilt ! — How now, fellow ? 

Enter a Seevant. 

Serv. Sir, Octavius is already come to Pome. 

Ant. Where is he ? 

Serv. He and Lepidus are at Caesar's house. 

458. Ant. And thither will I straight to visit him. 
He comes upon a wish. Fortune is merry, 
And in this mood will give us anything. 

459. Serv. I heard them say, Brutus and Cassius 
Are rid like madmen through the gates of Pome. 

460. Ant. Belike they had some notice of the people,- 

How I had moved them. Bring me to Octavius. [Exeunt 



254 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEKTAET. [ACT III 

370. For Cit. here the original edition has Ble. ; and 
afterwards for 1 Cit., 2 Cit., 3 Cit., it has 1 Pie., 2, 3 ; 
and for Cit. at 376, etc., it has All. 

371. And part the numbers. — Divide the multitude. 
371. And public reasons shall be rendered. — To render 

is to give back or in return for. Thus in 349, as we have 
seen, Antony asks Brutus and his confederates to render 
him their hands in return for his own. Here the act 
which had been done, the slaughter of Caesar, is that in 
return or compensation for which, as it were, the reasons 
are to be given. — For the prosody of the present line see 
the note on " She dreamt to-night she saw my statue " 
in 246. It may be observed that in the First Folio, 
where the elision of the e in the verbal affix -e d is usually 
marked, the spelling is here rendred ; but this may leave 
it still doubtful whether the word was intended to be 
represented as of two or of three syllables. It is the same 
in 373. 

373. Exit Cassius, etc. Brutus goes into the Rostrum. 
— This stage direction is all modern. The Rostrum is the 
same that is called " the public chair" in 389, and " the 
pulpit" elsewhere: Vid. 313, 320, 355, 358, 360. Ros- 
trum is not a word which Shakespeare anywhere uses. 
Nor, indeed, is it a legitimate formation. It ought to be 
Rostra, in the plural, as it always is in Latin. Neverthe- 
less few persons in their senses will be inclined to go 
with Dr Webster for the immediate origin of Rostrum, 
in any of its English applications, to the "Welsh rhetgyr, 
a snout, or rhethern, a pike. 

374. The noble Brutus is ascended. — In this form of 
expression it is plain that we use the verb to ascend in 
quite a different sense from that which it has when we 
say " Brutus has ascended the pulpit." According to the 
one form, it is Brutus that is ascended ; according to 
the other, it is the pulpit that is ascended. In point of 
fact, if to ascend be taken in its proper sense of to mount 



sc. 2.] julius causae. 255 

or climb up, it is only the pulpit that can be ascended ; 
in saying that Brutus is ascended we employ the verb 
as if its meaning were to lift, carry, or bear up. Clear, 
however, as is the violation of principle, the right of 
perpetrating it must be held to be one of the estab- 
lished liberties of the language. Even still we commonly 
say is come, is become, is gone, is arrived, is fled, is escaped, 
etc. In the freer condition of the language formerly 
such a mode of expression was carried a good deal farther. 
Thus, in the present Play, we have in 329 " [Antony is] 
fled to his house amazed;" in 399, " judgment ! thou 
art fled to brutish beasts ;" in 459, '"'Brutus and Cassius 
Are rid like madmen through the gates of Borne;" in 
510, "Hark, he is arrived;" in 624, "The deep of night 
is crept upon our talk ; " in 704, " This morning are they 
fled away and gone ; " in 722, " Time is come round ; " and 
" My life is run his compass." This last instance carries 
the irregularity to its height ; for here the verb to run is 
actually used at the same time in two senses ; both in 
the sense in which we say " to run a ship on a rock," or 
"to run a nail into a door" (that is, to make move 
rapidly), and also in that in which we say "to run a 
race" (that is, to move rapidly through or over). In the 
first sense only can Cassius say that his life is run ; in 
the second alone can he speak of it as running his — that 
is, its (Vid. 54) — compass. In the one case it is the 
thing moved that is run (the same as when we talk of 
running a thread through a cloth or a rope over a pulley, 
or of running a metal, or running off wine) ; in the other 
case, what is said to be run is the act or process through 
which the movement is made (the same as when we talk 
of running a risk, or running the gauntlet, or running a 
muck). This latter sense is not to be confounded with 
that which we have in "to run a mile ;" there the verb 
is intransitive, and the noun expresses only the extent, 
or as it were manner, of the verbal action, and is no 



256 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III,. 

more governed by the verb than it is in the phrase " to 
live a year," or than the qualifying adverb is so governed 
in the phrase " to run fast." If Cassius had said that his 
life was run its compass halfway, we should have had a 
combination of all the three senses. 

The following are examples of this form of construction 
from other plays : — 

"Is our whole dissembly appeared ?" 

{Dogberry, in Much Ado about Noth., iv. 2) ; 

" Prince John is this morning secretly stolen away." 

Sexton, Ibid.) ; 
"His lordship is walked forth into the orchard." 

(Porter, in Second Part of Henry IV., i. 1) ; 

" He said mine eyes were black, and my hair black, 
And, now I am remembered, scorned at me." 

(Phebe, in As You Like It, Hi. 5) ; 

" You being then, if you be remembered, cracking the stones." 
(Clown, in Meas.for Meas. ii. 1) ; 
" I telling you then, if you be remembered." — (Ibid.) ; 

" But, if you be remembered, 
"I did not bid you mar it to the time." 

(Petrucio, in Tarn, of Shrew, iv. 3) ; 

" If your majesty is remembered of it." 

(Fluellen, in Henry V., iv. 7) ; 
" Now, by my troth, if I had been remembered, 
I could have given my uncle's grace a flout." 

(York, in Bich. III., ii. 4) ; 
" Be you remembered, Marcus, she's gone, she's fled." 

(Titus, in Titus Andronicus, iv. 3). 

375. Romans, countrymen, and lovers. — Vid. 260. 

375. Save respect to mine honour. — That is, merely, 
look to (not look up to). We still employ such words 
as respect and regard in different senses according to cir- 
cumstances. I look with regard, or with respect, upon this 
man, or upon that institution. With regard, or with re- 
spect, to another man or institution I have nothing to say 
but what is condemnatory, or nothing to say at all. 



sc. 2.] JULirs c.esak. 257 

375. Censure me. — That is, merely, pass judgment 
upon me. Vid. 329. 

375. Any dear friend of Ccesar's, to him I say. — It is 
"to them I say" in the second Folio. 

375. JSTot that I loved Ccesar less. — Less than he (the 
" dear friend ") loved Caesar. 

375. But that I loved Borne more. — More than he (the 
"dear friend of Caesar") loved Borne. 

375. Had you rather. — Vid. note on Had as lief in 54. 

375. To live all freemen. — It is commonly printed 
" free men," in two words. But the writer cannot have 
intended that such prominence should he given to the 
term men, the notion conveyed by which is equally con- 
tained in slaves ; for which, indeed, we might have had 
bondmen, with no difference of effect. If it ought to he 
" free men " here, it should he " Who is here so base that 
would be a bond man ?" a few lines farther on. In the 
original edition it is "freemen." 

375. There is tears, etc. — In many modern editions this 
is changed into " There are" But the tears, joy, etc., 
are regarded as making one thing. Instead of " There 
is," it might have been " This is," or " That is." 

376. The stage direction is modern. 

377. The question of his death. — The word question is 
here used in a somewhat peculiar sense. It seems to 
mean the statement of the reasons. In a note on the 
expression in Hamlet, ii. 2, " Little eyases, that cry out 
on the top of question," Steevens gives it as his opinion 
that question " in this place, as in many others, signifies 
conversation, dialogue." And he quotes in corroboration 
Antonio's remark, in TJie Merchant of Venice, iv. 1, " I 
pray you, think you question with the Jew." But in 
that passage the meaning of the word is merely the ordin- 
ary one, you debate, argue, hold controversy, with. The 
following may perhaps be adduced as an instance of the 
use of the word in a somewhat larger sense, involving 



25S PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III 

little or nothing of the notion of a doubt or dispute : — 
" Thou shalt accompany us to the place, where we will, 
not appearing what we are, have some question with the 
shepherd;" Winter's Tale,iv. 1. 

377. Nor his offences enforced. — Dwelt upon and 
pressed, or more than simply stated. In the same sense 
in Coriolanus, ii. 3, the tribune Sicinius exhorts the 
populace touching Marcius : — " Enforce his pride, And 
his old hate unto you." 

377. As which of you shall not ? — "We find which in our 
oldest English in the forms hwilc, hivylc, and hwelc — 
forms which have been supposed to arise out of the com- 
bination of the relative hiva with lie (like), the annexa- 
tion being designed to give greater generalization or in- 
definiteness of meaning to the pronoun. At all events, 
the word is used with reference to nouns of all genders, 
as is also its representative the whilk, or quhilk, of the 
old Scottish dialect, and as the English which too formerly 
was even when an ordinary relative (as we have it in the 
time-honoured formula " Our Eather which art in hea- 
ven"), and still is both whenever it is interrogative and 
likewise when the antecedent to which it is relative is 
either suppressed or joined with it in the same concord 
and government. Thus, we say of persons as well as of 
things, " Which was it ?" and " I do not know which of 
them it was," as Brutus, addressing his fellow-citizens, 
has here " Which of you;" and it is even allowable to 
say " Louis XVI. , which king it was in whose reign — or, 
in the reign of ivhich king it was — that the Erench Eevo- 
lution broke out." — It is one of the many curiosities of 
Dr Webster's Miglish Dictionary that he refuses to admit 
which to have anything to do with the ancient hwilc, and 
suggests that it may be rather the same word with quick I 

The stage direction in the original edition is, " Enter 
Marie Antony, with C&sar's ~body" 

377. My lest lover.— Vid. 260. 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CL£SAE. 259 

382. Shall now be crowned in Brutus. — The now is not 

in the old texts, but was supplied by Pope, and has been 
retained by ZvTalone and Boswell. as well as by Steevens. 
It may not. be the true word, but that some word is 
wanting is certain. The dialogue here is evidently in- 
tended to be metrical, and " Shall be crowned in Brutus" 
is not a possible commencement of a verse. Mr Collier 
also in his regulated text retains the now, although it does 
not appear to have the sanction of his 3IS. annotator. 

387. Do grace to Ccesar's corpse. — TTe have lost this 
idiom, though we still say "to do honour to." 

390. / am beholden to you. — Both here and also in 
392 the first three Polios have all beholding, which may 
possibly have been the way in which Shakespeare wrote 
the word (as it is that in which it was often written in 
his day), but may nevertheless be rectified on the same 
principle as other similar improprieties with which all 
modern editors have taken that liberty. Yet beholding 
is, I believe, always Bacon's word ; as in his Tenth Essay : 
— " The stage is more beholding to love than the life of 
man." Even in Clarendon, reporting the words of Queen 
Henrietta to himself, we have: — "Her old confessor, 
Eather Philips, . . . always told her, that, as she ought to 
continue firm and constant to her own religion, so she was 
to live well towards the Protestants who deserved well from 
her, and to whom she was beholding''' {Hist., Booh xiii.). 
The initial syllable of the word is of more interest than 
its termination. 

The complete disappearance from the modern form of 
the English language of the verbal prefix ge is a remark- 
able fact, and one which has not attracted the notice 
which it deserves. This augment may be said to have 
been the favourite and most distinguishing peculiarity of 
the language in the period preceding the Xorman Con- 
quest. In the inflection of the verb it was not merely, 
as in modern German, the sign of the past participle 

s 2 



260 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

passive, but might be prefixed to any other part ; and the 
words of all kinds which commenced with it, and in which 
it was not inflexional, amounted to several thousands. 
Yet now there is no native English word having ge for 
its initial syllable in existence; nor, indeed, has there 
been for many centuries : there are not only no such 
words in Chaucer, whose age (the fourteenth century) 
is reckoned the commencement of the period of what is 
denominated Middle English ; there are none even in 
Robert de Brunne, and very few, if any, in Robert of 
Gloucester, who belong to the thirteenth century, or to 
the age of what is commonly designated Early English. 
The inflexional ge is found at a comparatively late date 
only in the reduced or softened form of y, and even so 
scarcely after the middle of the sixteenth century (which 
may be taken as the date of the commencement of Modern 
English) except in a few antique words preserved or 
revived by Spenser. If two or three such words as 
yclad and yclept are to be found in Shakespeare, they are 
introduced with a view to a burlesque or grotesque effect, 
as they might be by a writer of the present day. They 
did not belong to the language of his age any more than 
they did to that of Thomson, who in the last century has 
sprinkled his Castle of Indolence with words of this de- 
scription the better to keep up his imitation of Spenser. 
As for the "star-ypointing pyramid " attributed to Milton 
(in his lines on Shakespeare), it is in all probability a 
mistake of his modern editors : " ypoinW " might have 
been credible, but "ypomting" scarcely is. The true 
reading probably is " starry-pointing." It has commonly 
been assumed that, with such rare and insignificant ex- 
ceptions (if exceptions they are to be considered), the old 
prefix ge has entirely passed away or been ejected from 
the language in its present state, — that it has dropped off, 
like a decayed member, without anything being substi- 
tuted in its place. But the fact is not so. It is certain, 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CiESAR. 2G1 

that, both in its inflexional and in its non-inflexional 
character, it still exists in a good many words in a dis- 
guised form. — in that namely of be. 3Iany of our words 
beginning with be cannot be otherwise accounted for. 
Our modern beloved, for example, is undoubtedly the 
ancient gelufed. Another remarkable instance is that of 
the familiar word belief or believe. The Original English 
has no such verb as belt/fan ; its form for our believe is 
gehjfan (the same with the modern German glauben). 
Again, to become (at least in the sense of to suit) is the 
Original English gecweman : there is no beciceman. Be- 
come, in this sense, it ought to be noticed, has apparently 
no connexion with to come (from comun. or cumo.ii) ; we 
have its root cweman in the old English to quern, meaning 
to please, used by Chaucer. And the German also, like 
our modern English, has in this instance lost or re- 
jected both the simple form and the ge- form, retaining, or 
substituting, only be quern and beguemen. IS or is there 
any belang or belong ; our modern belong is from the 
ancient gelang. In like manner there is no such Original 
English verb as besecan ; there is only gesecan. from which 
we have formed our beseeJc and beseech. So tacn. or tacen, 
is a token, from which is getacnian, to denote by a token 
or sign; there is no betacnian; yet we say to betoken. 
And there are probably other examples of the same thing 
among the words now in use having be for the commenc- 
ing syllable (of which the common dictionaries give us 
about a couple of hundreds), although the generality of 
them are only modern fabrications constructed in imita- 
tion :: one another, and upon no other principle than the as- 
sumption that the syllable in question may be prefixed to 
almost any verb whatever. Such are bepraise^ bepowder, 
bespatter, betJiu/mj). and many more, Only between thirty 
ana forty seem to be traceable to Original English verbs 
beginning with be. 



262 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

The facts that have been mentioned sufficiently explain 
the word beholden. It has nothing to do with the modern 
behold, or the ancient behealdan (which, like its modern 
representative, signified to see or look on), bnt is another 
form, according to the corrnption which we have seen to 
take place in so many other instances, of gehealden, the 
past participle passive of healdan, to hold ; whence its 
meaning, here and always, of held, bound, obliged. It cor- 
responds to the modern German gehalten, of the same 
signification, and is quite distinct from behalten, the past 
participle passive of the verb behalten, which signifies 
kept, preserved. 

One word, which repeatedly occurs in Shakespeare, con- 
taining the prefix ge, has been generally misunderstood 
by his editors. What they all, I believe without ex- 
ception, print I wis, or i" wiss, as if it were a verb with 
its nominative, is undoubtedly one word, and that an 
adverb, signifying certainly, probably. It ought to be 
written ywis, or ywiss, corresponding as it does exactly 
to the modern German gewiss. It is true, indeed, that 
Sir Frederic Madden in the Glossary to his edition of 
Syr Gawayne (printed, for the Roxburgh Club, in 1839) 
expresses a doubt whether it were "not regarded as a 
pronoun and verb by the writers of the fifteenth cen- 
tury." But this supposition Dr Guest (Phil. Proc. II. 
160) regards as wholly gratuitous. He believes there is 
not a single instance to be found in which iviss, or wisse, 
has been used in the sense of to know, " till our modern 
glossarists and editors chose to give it that signification." 
Johnson in his Dictionary enters ivis as a verb, meaning 
to think, to imagine. "Webster does the same. So also 
Nares in his Glossary. It is the only explanation which 
any of these authorities give of the form in question. 
" The preterite," adds K"ares, " is wist. The present 
tense is seldom found but in the first person ; the pre- 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C^SAE. 263 

terite was common in all the persons." In a note on 
the passage in The Merchant of Venice, ii. 9, " There be 
fools, alive, / to is [as they all print it], Silvered o'er," 
Steevens writes (Variorum edition, V. 71) : — " I wis, I 
know. Wissen, German. So in King Henry the Sixth : 
*I wis yonr grandam had no worser match.' Again, in 
the Comedy of King Cambyses : ' Yea, I wis, shall yon, 
and that with all speed.' Sydney, Ascham, and "Waller 
use the word." The line here quoted from Shakespeare 
is not in King Henry the Sixth, but in Richard the Third, 
i. 3, and runs, "I wis [Ywis] your grandam had a worser 
match." So in the Taming of the Shrew, i. 1, " Ywis, it is 
not halfway to her heart." Chaucer, though his adverb 
is commonly ywis, has at least in one instance simply 

ivis : — 

" JSTay, nay, quod she, God help me so, as wis 
This is to much, and it were Goddes wil." 

C. T. 11,781. 
The syllable wis is no doubt the same element that we 
have both in the GeTm&n. wissen and in our English guess. 

395. We are blest that Rome is rid of him. — The Se- 
cond Folio has " We axe glad" But Mr Collier in his one 
volume restores blest, although it does not appear to be 
one of the corrections of his MS. annotator. 

399. Here, under leave of Brutus, and the rest. — Com- 
pare " By your pardon " of 358. 

399. When that the poor have cried. — The that in such 
cases as this is merely a summary or compendious expres- 
sion of what follows, which was convenient, perhaps, in a 
ruder condition of the language, as more distinctly mark- 
ing out the clause to be comprehended under the when. 
We still commonly use it with now, when it serves to dis- 
criminate the conjunction from the adverb, although not 
with other conjunctions which are never adverbs. Chau- 
cer often introduces with a that even the clause that fol- 
lows a relative pronoun ; as (C. T. 982) : — " The Minotaur 



264 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEFTAEY. [ACT III. 

which that he slew in Crete;" or (C. T. 988) ""With 
Creon, which that was of Thebes king." 

399. You all did see, that on the Lupercal. — Vid. 17. 

399. What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him ? 
We should now say, " "Withholds you from mourning." 
We could not use withhold followed by the infinitive. 

403. Has he not, masters ? — The common reading is 
"Has he, masters ?" The prosody clearly demands the 
insertion of some monosyllable; Capell accordingly in- 
serted my before masters ; but the word required by the 
sense and the connexion evidently is not. The correction, 
though conjectural, is therefore one which may be re- 
garded as of nearly absolute necessity and certainty. — 
Masters was the common term of address to a miscellane- 
ous assembly formerly. So again in 408 ; where, however, 
the word is Maisters in both the First and Second Polios, 
although not usually so elsewhere. 

404. Some will dear abide it. — Vid. 327. 

408. And none so poor to do him reverence. — The 
omission of one of two correlative words (such as the as 
answering to the so here) is, when no ambiguity is there- 
by occasioned, allowable in almost all circumstances. — 
The manner in which the clause is hung on to what pre- 
cedes by the conjunction is such as to preclude the ne- 
cessity of a new copula or affirmative term. It is as if it- 
were " with none so poor," etc. And and is logically 
(whatever it may be etymologically) equivalent to with. 
So in 164, "Yes every man of them; and no man here 
But honours you." 

408. Let hut the commons hear this testament. — The 
commonalty, the common people. 

408. And dip their napkins in his sacred Hood. — A 
napkin (connected with napery, from the French nappe, a 
cloth, which, again, appears to be a corruption of the 
Latin mappa, of the same signification, the original also 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C^SAR. 265 

of our map, and of the mappe of the French mappemonde, 
that is mappa mundi) is still the common name for a 
pocket handkerchief in Scotland. It is also that com- 
monly employed by Shakespeare ; See the Third Act of 
Othello, and the Fourth Act of As you Like It. — Com- 
pare 247. 

412. Read the will; etc.— This and most of the subse- 
quent exclamations of the populace need not be considered 
as verse. 

413. I have o'er shot myself, to tell you of it. — That is, I 
have overshot myself (done more than I had intended) 
by telling you of it. 

419. He comes down, etc. — This stage direction is not 
in the older copies. 

422. Stand from the hearse. — The hearse was the frame 
or stand on which the body lay. It is the French herse 
or herce, meaning a portcullis or harrow; whence the 
English term seems to have been applied to whatever was 
constructed of bars or beams laid crosswise. 

426. That day he overcame the Nervii.— These words 
certainly ought not to be made a direct statement, as they 
are by the punctuation of the Variorum and of most 
other modern editions, though not by that of Mr Collier's 
regulated text. 

426. As rushing out of doors, to be resolved. — Vid. 339. 

426. This was the most unkindest cut of all. — Vid. 337. 

426. For Brutus, as you know, was Ccesar's angel. — I 
cannot think that the meaning can be, as Boswell sug- 
gests, his guardian angel. It is much more natural to 
understand it as being simply his best beloved, his darling. 

426. For when the noble C&sar saw him stab. — The him 
is here strongly emphatic, notwithstanding its occupation 
of one of the places assigned by the common rule to short 
or unaccented syllables. Vid. 436. 

426. Fven at the base of Fompefs statue. — Vid. 246. 
The measure, Malone remarks, will be defective (unless 



266 PHILOLOGICAL COSIMEKTAEY. [ACT III. 

we read statud) if even be a monosyllable, which he says it 
usually is in Shakespeare. He thinks that it would be all 
right with the prosody if even could be taken as a dis- 
syllable ! 

426. Wliich all the while ran Hood. — This is almost in 
the words of North's Plutarch : — " Against the very base 
whereon Pompey's statue stood, which ran all a gore of 
blood." Gore is an Original English word meaning any- 
thing muddy, possibly connected with the German gdhr en, 
to ferment, and other German words. 

426. Whilst bloody treason flourished over us. — Surely 
this can mean nothing more than that treason triumphed, 
— put forth, as it were, its flowers, — shot up into vigorous 
efflorescence, — over us. Tet the only interpretation the 
Variorum commentators supply is that of Steevens, who 
says that flourishes means flourishes its sword, and quotes 
from Romeo and Juliet, i. 1, the line, " And flourishes his 
blade in spite of me," — as if that would prove that to 
flourish used absolutely meant or could mean to flourish 
a sword. 

426. The dint of pity. — Dint seems to be the same 
word with dent, or indentation, that is, the impression 
made as by a tooth. It is commonly dent in the old 
writers. 

426. These are gracious drops. — railing, the thought 
seems to be, like the bountiful and refreshing rain from 
heaven. 

426. Marred, as you see, with traitors. — Vid. 363. 

432. We will be revenged, etc. — This speech is printed 
in the Eirst Eolio as if it were verse, thus : — 

" We will be revenged : revenge ; 
About, — seek, — burn, — fire, — kill, — slay! 
Let not a traitor live." 

433. Stay, countrymen. — To this speech Mr Collier's 
MS. annotator appends the stage direction, " They are 
rushing out" 



SC. 2.] JULIUS OESAB. 267 

436. What private griefs they have. — Vid. 129. — - Griefs 
with Shakespeare involves the notion rather of to aggrieve 
than that expressed by to grieve. So again in 519 : 
" Speak your griefs softly ;" and " Enlarge your griefs." 

436. That gave one public leave to speak of him. — The 
Second Folio has " That give me." Mr Collier restores 
gave. 

436. For I have neither wit, etc. — This is the reading 
of the Second Folio. The First has writ, which Malone 
actually adopts and defends ! Here is a most animated 
and admirable enumeration of the various powers, faculties, 
and arts by which a great orator is enabled "to stir men's 
blood," beginning, naturally, with that gift of imagination 
and invention which is at once the highest of them all 
and the fountain of most of the others ; and this editor, 
rather than admit the probability of the misprint of a 
single letter in a volume swarming with undeniable typo- 
graphical errata, would make Antony substitute the 
ridiculous remark that the first requisite for his purpose, 
and that in which he was chiefly deficient, was what he 
calls a writ, meaning a written speech! Is it possible 
that such a critic can have had the smallest feeling of 
anything in Shakespeare above the level of the merest 
prose ? " Wit," he goes on to tell us, " in our author's 
time had not its present signification, but meant under- 
standing." The fact is, that there are numerous passages 
in Shakespeare in which the word has exactly its present 
signification. " Sir Thurio," says Valentine to Silvia, in 
The Two Gentlemen of Yerona (ii. 4), "borrows his wit 
from your ladyship's looks, and spends what he borrows, 
kindly, in your company." "Sir," replies Thurio, "if 
you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit 
bankrupt." So in Much Ado About Nothing, i. 1, " There 
is a kind of merry war," says Leonato, speaking of his 
niece Beatrice, " betwixt Signior Benedick and her : they 
never meet but there is a skirmish of wit between them." 



268 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

Or, to go no further, how would Malone, or those who 
think with him (if there be any), explain the conversation 
about Benedick's wit in the Eirst Scene of the Fifth Act 
of the last-mentioned Play without taking the word as 
there used in the sense which it now ordinarily bears ? In 
the passage before us, to be sure, its meaning is more 
comprehensive, corresponding nearly to what it still con- 
veys in the expression " the wit of man." 

We have the same natural conjunction of terms that 
we have here in Measure for Measure, v. 1, where the 
Duke addresses the discomfited Angelo : — 

"Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence, 
That yet can do thee office ? " 

436. And bid them speak for me. — The them here, em- 
phatic and yet occupying a place in the verse in which it 
is commonly laid down that only a short or unaccented 
syllable can properly stand, is in precisely the same pre- 
dicament with the him of " When the noble Csssar saw 
Urn stab" of 426. Vid. 537. 

444. To every several man. — Several is connected with 
the verb sever, which is from the Latin separo, through 
the French sevrer (though that language has also separer, 
as we too have separate). " Every Several man " is every 
man by himself or in his individual capacity. The phrase 
may be illustrated by the legal distinction between estates 
in severalty and in joint-tenancy or in common. So in 
449 we have "common pleasures." "These properties of 
arts or policy, and dissimulation or closeness," says 
Bacon, in his 6th Essay, " are, indeed, habits and faculties 
several, and to be distinguished." 

449. He hath left them you. — The emphasis is on you. 

450. And with the brands f re the traitors' houses. — 
This is the reading of the Eirst Eolio : the Second has 
"all the traitors' houses," which maybe right; for the 
prolongation oifire into a dissyllable, though it will give 
us the requisite number of syllables (which satisfies both 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C^SAB. 269 

Malone and Steevens), will not make a very musical 
verse. Yet the harshness and dissonance produced by 
the irregular fall of the accent, in addition to the diaeresis, 
in the case of the -worifre, may be thought to add to 
the force and expressiveness of the line. Mr Collier omits 
the "all." 

454. Take thou what course thou wilt ! — How now, 
fellow? — It is impossible not to suspect that Shake- 
speare must have written " Take now what course thou 
wilt." The emphatic pronoun, or even a pronoun at all, 
is unaccountable here. The abruptness, or unexpectedness, 
of the appearance of the Servant is vividly expressed 
by the unusual construction of this verse, in which we 
have an example of the extreme licence, or deviation from 
the normal form, consisting in the reversal of the regular 
accentuation in the last foot. Thus we have in Milton, 
Paradise Lost, x. 840, 

"Beyond all past example and future;" 
and again, xi. 683, 

" To whom thus Michael : These are the product." 

At least, future, which is common in his verse, has every- 
where else the accent on the first syllable. Product 
occurs nowhere else in Milton, and nowhere in Shake- 
speare. — The stage directions before and after this speech 
are in the original edition; — "Exit Plebeians" and 
" Enter Servant" 

458. lie comes upon a wish. — Coincidently with, as it 
were upon the back of, my wish for him. Vid. 589. 

459. I heard them say. — In all the old copies it is " I 
heard him say ; " which Jennens explains thus : — " Sim 
evidently refers to Octavius, who, as he was coming into 
!Rome, had seen Brutus and Cassius riding like madmen 
through the gates, and had related the same in the pre- 
sence of the servant." The conjectural emendation of 
them, however, which appears to have been first proposed 
by Capell had been long generally received, and is con- 



270 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT III. 

firmed by the authority of Mr Collier's manuscript an- 
notator. 

459. Are rid like madmen. — Vid. 374. 

460. Belike they had some notice of the people. — -This 
now obsolete word belike (probably) is commonly held to 
be a compound of by and like. But it may perhaps be 
rather the ancient gelice (in like manner), with a slight 
change of meaning. Vid. 390.- — " Some notice of the 
people " is some notice respecting the people. 

SCENE III.— The same. A Street. 

Enter Cinna the Poet. 

461. Cin. I dreamt to-night, that I did feast with Caesar, . 
And things unlikely charge my fantasy : 
I have no will to wander forth of doors, 
Yet something leads me forth. 

Enter Citizens. 

1 Cit. "What is your name ? 

2 Cit. Whither are yon going ? 

3 Cit. Where do yon dwell ? 

4 Cit. Are yon a married man, or a bachelor ? 
2 Cit. Answer every man directly. 

1 Cit. Ay, and briefly. 
4 Cit. Ay, and wisely. 

469. 3 Cit. Ay, and truly, you were best. 

470. Cin. What is my name ? Whither am I going ? Where do I 
dwell ? Am I a married man, or a bachelor ? Then to answer every 
man directly and briefly, wisely and truly. Wisely, I say, I am a 
bachelor. 

471. Cit. That's as much as to say, they are fools that marry : — 
You'll bear me a bang for that, I fear. Proceed; directly. 

Cin. Directly, I am going to Caesar's funeral. 

1 Cit. As a friend, or an enemy ? 
Cin. As a friend. 

2 Cit. That matter is answered directly. 
4 Cit. For your dwelling, — briefly. 
Cin. Briefly, I dwell by the Capitol. 

3 Cit. Your name, Sir, truly. 
Cin. Truly, my name is Cinna. 

1 Cit. Tear him to pieces, he's a conspirator. 



SC. 3.] JULIUS (LESAR. 271 

Cin. I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet. 

4 Cit. Tear him for his had verses, tear him for his had verses. 

483. Cin. I am not Cinna the conspirator. 

484. 2 Cit. It is no matter, his name's Cinna ; pluck hut his name out 
of his heart, and turn him going. 

3 Cit. Tear him, tear him. Come, brands, ho ! fire-brands. To 
Brutus', to Cassius' ; burn all. Some to Decius' house, and some 
to Casca's : some to Ligarius' : away; go. [Exeunt. 

461. And thi7igs unlikely charge my fantasy. — Instead 
of unlikely the old text has unluckily. Unlikely, which 
appears for the first time in Mr Collier's one volume 
edition, is the restoration of his MS. annotator. It at 
once, and in the most satisfactory manner, turns nonsense 
into sense. 

461. I have no will, etc. — Yery well illustrated by 
Steevens in a quotation from The Merchant of Venice, ii. 
5, where Shylock says : — 

" I have no mind of feasting forth to night : 
But I will go." 

The only stage direction here in the original edition is 
before this speech : — " Enter Cinna the Poet, and after 
him the Plebeians.'''' 

469. Ay, and truly, you were best. — This is strictly 
equivalent to " Tou would be best," and might perhaps 
be more easily resolved than the more common idiom, 
" You had best." But all languages have phraseologies 
coming under the same head with this, which are not to 
be explained upon strictly logical principles. Witness 
the various applications of the Greek e\ e h ^ ne French il 
y a, etc. In the following sentence from As You Like It, 
i. 1, we have both the idioms that have been referred to : — 
" I had as lief thou didst break his neck as his finger 
and thou wert best look to it." 

470. Wisely, I say, I am a bachelor. — China's meaning 
evidently is, "Wisely I am a bachelor. But that is not 



272 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IY. 

conveyed by the way in which the passage has hitherto 
been always pointed — " Wisely I say." 

471. You'll bear me a hang for that.— You'll get a bang 
for that (from some one) . The me goes for nothing. Vid. 
89 and 205. 

483. Cin. I am not, etc. — This speeeh was carelessly 
omitted in the generality of the modern texts, including 
that of the standard edition of Malone and Boswell, till 
restored by Mr Knight. It is given, however, in Jen- 
nens's collation (1774), and he does not note its omission 
by any preceding editor. 

484. Turn Mm going. — Turn him off; let him go. The 
expression occurs also in As You Like It, in. 1 : — " Do 
this expediently, and turn him going." So in Sir Thomas 
Urquhart's translation of Rabelais, B. i. ch. 35; "Avoid 
hence, and get thee going." — This story of Cinna is told 
by Plutarch in his Life of Caesar. He says, the people, 
falling upon him in their rage, slew him outright in the 
market-place. 

The stage direction with which the Act terminates in 
the original edition is, " Exeunt all tlte Plebeians." 



ACT IV. 

SCENE I. — The same. A Room in Antony's House. 

Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, seated at a Table. 

486. Ant. These many, then, shall die ; their names are pricked. 
Oct. Your brother too must die. Consent you, Lepidus ? 
Lep. I do consent. 
Oct. Prick him down, Antony. 

490. Lep. Upon condition Publius shall not live, 
Who is your sister's son, Mark Antony. 

491. Ant. He shall not live ; look, with a spot I damn him. 
But, Lepidus, go you to Csesar's house; 

Fetch the will hither, and we shall determine 
How to cut off some charge in legacies. 



sc. 1.] JULIUS C^SAE. 273 

Lep. What, shall I find you here ? 

Oct. Or here, or at 
The Capitol. [Exit Lepidus, 

494. Ant. This is a slight unmeritable man, 
Meet to be sent on errands : Is it fit, 
The three-fold world divided, he should stand 
One of the three to share it ? 

Oct. So you thought him ; 
And took his voice who should be pricked to die 
In our black sentence and proscription. 
496. Ant. Octavius, I have seen more days than vou ; 
And though we lay these honours on this man, 
To ease ourselves of divers slanderous loads, 
He shall but bear them as the ass bears gold ; 
To groan and sweat under the business, 
Either led or driven, as we point the way ; 
And, having brought our treasure where we will, 
Then take we down his load, and turn him off, 
Like to the empty ass, to shake his ears, 
And graze on commons. 

Oct. You may do your will ; 
But he's a tried and valiant soldier. 

498. Ant. So is my horse, Octavius ; and, for that, 
I do appoint him store of provender. 

It is a creature that I teach to fight, 

To wind, to stop, to run directly on ; 

His corporal motion governed by my spirit. 

And, in some taste, is Lepidus but so ; 

He must be taught, and trained, and bid go forth : 

A barren-spirited fellow ; one that feeds 

On objects, arts, and imitations, 

Which, out of use, and staled by other men, 

Begin his fashion : Do not talk of him, 

But as a property. 

And now, Octavius, 
Listen great things. — Brutus and Cassius 
Are levying powers ; we must straight make head : 
Therefore let our alliance be combined, 
Our best friends made, and our best means stretched out ; 
And let us presently go sit in counsel 
How covert matters may be best disclosed, 
And open perils surest answered. 

499. Oct. Let us do so : for we are at the stake, 

T 



271 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IV. 

And bayed about with many enemies ; 

And some, that smile, have in their hearts, I fear, 

Millions of mischiefs. [Exeunt. 

The Same. A Boom in Antony's House. — The original 
heading is only, "Enter Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus" 
The Same, meaning at Some, was supplied by Eowe. It 
is evident (especially from 492 and 493) that the scene is 
placed at Kome, although in point of fact the triumvirs 
held their meeting in a small island in the river Bhenus 
(now the Rend) near Bononia {Bologna), where, Plutarch 
says, they remained three days together. 

486. These many. — An archaic form for so many, this 
number. 

486. Their names are pricked. — Vid. 352. 

490. Who is your sister's son, 3far7c Antony. — This is 
a mistake. The person meant is Lucius Caesar, who was 
Mark Antony's uncle, the brother of his mother. 

491. Look, with a spot I damn him. — Note him as con- 
demned, by a mark or stigma (called pricking his name 
in 486, and pricking him down in 489, and pricking him 
in 495). 

491. Fetch the will hither, and we shall determine. — 
This is the reading of all the old copies, and is properly 
retained by Mr Knight. In the Variorum edition we 
have (and without warning) will substituted for shall ; 
and this alteration Mr Collier also adopts in his regu- 
lated text, although it does not appear to be one of the 
corrections of his manuscript annotator. 

494. This is a slight unmeritable man. — So afterwards 
in 535, "Away, slight man!" said by Brutus, in mo- 
mentary anger, to Cassius. Vid. 522. — Unmeritable 
should mean incapable of deserving. 

494. Meet to be sent on errands. — Frrand is an Original 
English word, cerend (perhaps from cer, or ar, before, 
whence also ere and early). It has no connexion with 
errant, wandering (from the Latin erro, whence also err, 
and error, and erroneous). 



SC. I.] JULIUS CiESAB. 275 

496. To groan and sweat under the business. — Business 
is commonly only a dissyllable with Shakespeare ; and it 
may be no more here npon the principle explained in the 
note on " She dreamt to-night she saw my statue " in 
246. There are a good many more instances of lines con- 
cluding with business, in which either it is a trisyllable 
(although commonly only a dissyllable in the middle of a 
line) or the verse must be regarded as a hemistich, or 
truncated verse, of nine syllables. 

496. Either led or driven, etc. — The three last Polios, 
and also Eowe, have "print the way." The we of this 
line, and the our and the we of the next, are all emphatic. 
There is the common irregularity of a single short super- 
fluous syllable (the er of either) . 

496. And graze on commons. — In is the reading of all 
the old copies. On is the correction of Mr Collier's MS. 
annotator. 

498. Store of provender. — Provender, which Johnson 
explains to mean " dry food for brutes," and which also 
appears in the forms provand and provant, is immediately 
from the French provende, having the same signification ; 
but the origin of the French word is not so clear. The 
Italian, indeed, has provianda, a feminine substantive in 
the singular; but this signifies victuals in general, or 
flesh-meat in particular, and is the same word with the 
French viande and the English viands, which are com- 
monly traced to the Latin vivere (quasi vivendd), an 
etymology which receives some support from the exist- 
ence of vivanda in the Italian as apparently only another 
form of provianda. Another derivation of the French 
proven de brings it from provenire and proventus, in which 
case it would signify properly increase, growth, crop ; 
and another would bring it from provideo, making it only 
a variation or corruption of provision. The parentage of 
the word, therefore, may be said to be contested between 
vivo, venio, and video. Possibly vendo might also put in 

t 2 



276 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTAKY. [ACT IT. 

a claim. "Webster has : — " It is said that provend, pro- 
vender, originally signified a vessel containing a measure 
of corn daily given to a horse or other beast." By whom 
this is stated, or in what language the words are said to 
have this meaning, he does not inform us. He also ad- 
duces the Norman provender, a prebendary, and provendre, 
a prebend, and the Dutch prove, a prebend. The Latin 
frcebenda (from prcebeo), the undoubted original of pre- 
bend, may have got confounded with provende in the ob- 
scurity enveloping the origin and proper meaning of the 
latter term. 

498. And, in some taste. — It might seem at first that 
this phrase, as it may be said to be equivalent in effect 
to our common " in some sense," so is only another word- 
ing of the same conception or figure, what is called a 
sense in the one form being called a taste in the other. 
But, although taste is reckoned one of the senses, this would 
certainly be a wrong explanation. The expression "in some 
sense" has nothing to do with the powers of sensation or 
perception ; sense here is signification, meaning, import. 
Neither does taste stand for the sense of taste in the other 
expression. The taste which is here referred to is a taste 
in contradistinction to a more full enjoyment or participa- 
tion, a taste merely. " In some taste" is another way of 
saying, not " in some sense," but " in some measure, or 
degree." 

498. On objects, arts, and imitations, etc. — This passage, 
as it stands in the Folios, with the sentence terminating 
at "imitations," has much perplexed the commentators, 
and, indeed, may be said to have proved quite inexpli- 
cable, till a comma was substituted for the full point by 
Mr Knight, which slight change makes everything plain 
and easy. Antony's assertion is, that Lepidus feeds, not 
on objects, arts, and imitations generally, but on such of 
them as are out of use and staled (or worn out : Tid. 50) 
by other people, which, notwithstanding, begin his fashion 



SC. 1.] JULIUS CiESAR. 277 

(or with which his following the fashion begins). Theo- 
bald reduces the full point to a comma, as other editors 
do to a colon or a semicolon ; but it is evident, neverthe- 
less, from his note that he did not regard the relative 
clause as a qualification or limitation of what precedes it. 

498. Listen great tilings. — Listen has now ceased to be 
used as an active verb. 

498. Our test friends made, and our test means stretched 
out. — This is the reading of the Second Folio. It seems 
to me, I confess, to be sufficiently in Shakespeare's manner. 
The First Folio has " Our best Friends made, our meanes 
stretcht," — which, at any rate, it is quite impossible to 
believe to be what he wrote. 

498. And let us -presently go sit in counsel, etc. — The 
more ordinary phraseology would be " Let us sit in con- 
sultation how," or "Let us consult how." The word 
in the First Folio is " Councell," and most, if not all, 
modern editions have "sit in council." But Vid. 263, 

499. And hayed about with many enemies. — Vid. 349 
(for hayed}, and 363 (for with). 

499. Millions of mischiefs. — This is the reading of all 
the old editions. Mr Knight has "mischief," no doubt 
by an error of the press. In the Winter's Tale, iv. 2, 
however, we have, in a speech of the Clown, " A million 
of beating may come to a great matter." 

SCENE II. — Before Brutus' s Tent, in the Camp near Sardis. 

Drum. — Enter Brutus, Lucilius, Titinius, and Soldiers : 
Pindarus meeting them : Lucius at a distance. 

Bru. Stand, ho ! 

Lucil. Give the word, ho ! and stand. 

502. Bru. What now, Lucilius ? is Cassius near ? 

503. Lucil. He is at hand; and Pindarus is come 
To do you salutation from his master. 

[Pixdarus gives a letter to Brutus. 

504. Bru. He greets me well. — Your master, Pindarus, 



278 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IY. 

In his own change, or by ill officers, 
Hath given me some worthy cause to wish 
Things done undone : but, if he be at hand, 
I shall be satisfied. 

Pin. I do not doubt 
But that my noble master will appear 
Such as he is, full of regard and honour. 

506. Bru. He is not doubted. — 

A word, Lucilius : 
How he received you, let me be resolved. 

507. Lucil. With courtesy, and with respect enough ; 
But not with such familiar instances, 

Nor with such free and friendly conference, 
As he hath used of old. 

508. Bru. Thou hast described 

A hot friend cooling: Ever note, Lucilius, 
When love begins to sicken and decay, 
It useth an enforced ceremony. 
There are no tricks in plain and simple faith : 
But hollow men, like horses hot at hand, 
Make gallant show and promise of their mettle ; 
But, when they should endure the bloody spur, 
They fall their crests, and, like deceitful jades, 
Sink in the trial. Comes his army on ? 

509. Lucil. They mean this night in Sardis to be quartered ; 
The greater part, the horse in general, 

Are come with Cassius. [March ivithin. 

510. Bru. Hark, he is arrived : — 
March gently on to meet him. 

Enter Cassius and Soldiers. 

Cas. Stand, ho ! 

Bru. Stand, ho ! Speak the word along. 

513. Within. Stand. 

514. Within. Stand. 

515. Within. Stand. 

Cas. Most noble brother, you have done me wrong. 

Bru. Judge me, you gods ! Wrong I mine enemies ? 
And, if not so, how should I wrong a brother ? 

Cas. Brutus, this sober form of yours hides wrongs ; 
And when you do them — - — 
519. Bru. Cassius, be content : 

Speak your griefs softly ; — I do know you well. — 



SC. 2.] JULIUS CESAR. 279 

Before the eyes of both our armies here, 
Which should perceive nothing but lore from us, 
Let us not wrangle : Bid them move away ; 
Then in my tent, Cassius, enlarge your griefs. 
And I will give you audience. 

Cas. Pindar us, 
Bid our commanders lead their charges off 
A little from this ground. 
521. Bru. Lucius, do you the like; and let no man 
Come to our tent, till we have done our conference. 
Lucilius and Titinius, guard our door. [Exeunt 

Scene II. — The original heading here is "Drum. Enter 
Brutus, Lucillius, and the Army. Titinius and Findarus 
meete ihemP The modern editors after the name of 
Lucilius introduce that of Lucius. See the note on 521. 

502. What now, Lucilius ? is Cassius near ? — Here the 
ius is dissyllabic in Lucilius and monosyllabic in Cassius. 

503. To do you salutation Another of the old applica- 
tions of do which we have now lost. Vid. 147. The 
stage direction about the Letter is modern. 

504. He greets me well. — The meaning seems to be, 
He salutes me in a friendly manner. Yet this can hardly 
be regarded as a legitimate employment of -well. For 
greet see 242. 

504. In his own change, etc The meaning seems to be, 

either through a change that has taken place in his own 
feelings and conduct, or through the misconduct of his 
officers. 

504. Some worthy cause.— Some reasonable or sufficient 
cause, some cause of worth, value, or power to justify the 
wish. Our modern worth is the ancient iceorth, wurth, 
or wyrth, connected with which are weorscipe, worship, 
and weorthian, to hold in esteem or honour. But there 
may also perhaps be a connexion with iceorthan, or wur- 
than, to become, or to be, the same word with the modern 
German werden, and ( still in a single fragment remaining 
in use among ourselves in the phrase woe worth, that is, 



280 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IY. 

woe be. If this be so, either what we call ivorth is that 
which anything emphatically is, or, when we say that a 
thing is, we are only saying that it is worth in a broad or 
Yague sense, according to a common manner of forming a 
term of general out of one of particular import. In the 
latter case worth may be connected with, vir, and virtus, 
and vireo. Vid. 209. 

506. He is not doubted. — A word, etc. — Brutus here, 
it will be observed, makes two speeches ; first he addresses 
himself to Pindarus, then to Lucilius. Even if the pros- 
ody did not admonish us to the same effect, it would, in 
these circumstances, be better to print the passage as I 
have given it, with two hemistichs or broken lines. 

506. Let me be resolved. — Vid. 339. 

507. But not with such familiar instances. — The word 
still in use that most nearly expresses this obsolete sense 
<of instances is, perhaps, assiduities. As instance should 
mean standing upon, so assiduity should mean sitting 
upon. Assiduitas is used by Cicero ; instantia, I believe, 
is not found in the best age of the Latin tongue. The 
English word is employed by Shakespeare in other senses 
besides this that are now obsolete. " To comfort you the 
more," says the Earl of Warwick to the King, in the 
Second Fart of King Henry the Fourth, Hi. 1, 

" I have received 
A certain instance that Glendower is dead ; " — 

that is, a certain assurance. Again, in King "Richard the 
Third, "Tell him," says Lord Hastings in reply to the 
message from Lord Stanley, Hi. 2, 

" Tell him his fears are shallow, without instance ; " — 

that is, apparently, without any fact to support or justify 
them. Again, in Samlet, Hi. 2, in the Play acted before 
the King and Queen we have 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C^SAB. 281 

" The instances that second marriage move 
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love ; " — 

that is, the inducements, as we should now say, are base 
considerations of thrift, or pecuniary advantage. We 
now use instance in something like its proper sense only 
in the phrase " at the instance of," and even there the 
notion of pressure or urgency is nearly lost ; the word is 
understood as meaning little, if anything, more than 
merely so much of application, request, or suggestion as 
the mere mention of what is wanted might carry with it. 
In another phrase in which it has come to be used, "in 
the first instance," it is not very obvious what its mean- 
ing really is, or how, at least, it has got the meaning 
which it appears to have. Do we, or can we, say " in the 
second, or third, instance ? " By instance as commonly 
used, for a particular fact, we ought to understand a fact 
bearing upon the matter in hand ; and this seems to be 
still always kept in mind in the familiar expression " for 
instance." 

Shakespeare's use of the word may be further illustrated 
by the following passages : — " They will scarcely believe 
this without trial : offer them instances ; which shall 
bear no less likelihood than to see me at her chamber 
window ; hear me call Margaret, Hero ; hear Margaret 
term me Claudio ; " etc. {Much Ado About JS^oth., ii. 2) ; — ■ 

" Instance ! instance ! strong as Pinto's gates; 
Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven : 
Instance ! instance ! strong as heaven itself ; 
The bonds of heaven are slipped, dissolved, and loosed ; 
And with another knot, five-finger-tied, 
The fractions of her faith, orts of her love, 
The fragments, scraps, the bits and greasy reliqnes 
Of her o'ereaten faith, are bound to Diomed." 

Troil. and Cress., v. 2. 

508. Like horses hot at hand. — That is, apparently, 



282 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IT. 

when held by the hand, or led. Or rather, perhaps, when 
acted upon only by the rein. So in Harington's Ariosto, 
vii. 67, Melyssa says that she will try to make Eogero's 
griffith horse "gentle to the spur and hand." But has 
not " at hand " always meant, as it always does now, 
only near or hard by ? That meaning will not do here. 
The commentators afford us no light or help. Perhaps 
Shakespeare wrote " in hand." The two expressions in 
hand and at hand are commonly distinguished in the 
Plays as they are in our present usage ; and we also have on 
hand and at the hands of in the modern senses, as well as 
to hear in hand (" to keep in expectation, to amuse with 
false pretences " — Naves) smdat any hand (that is, in any 
case), which are now obsolete. In The Comedy of Errors, 
ii. 1, at hand, used by his mistress Adriana in the common 
sense, furnishes matter for the word-catching wit of 
Dromio of Ephesus after he has been beaten, as he thinks, 
by his master : — " Adr. Say, is your tardy master now at 
hand P Dro. JE. Nay, he's at two hands with me, and 
that my two ears can witness." In King John, v. 2, 
however, we have "like a lion fostered up at hand," that 
is, as we should now say, by hand. In another similar 
phrase, we may remark, at has now taken the place of the 
in or into of a former age. We now say To march at the 
head of, and also To place at the head of, and we use in 
the head and into the head in quite other senses ; but here 
is the way in which Clarendon expresses himself : — " They 
said . . . that there should be an army of thirty thousand 
men immediately transported into England with the 
Prince of Wales in the head of them " {Hist, Booh %.) ; 
" The King was only expected to be nearer England, how 
disguised soever, that he might quickly put himself into 
the head of the army, that would be ready to receive him " 
(Id., Book xiv.) ; " These cashiered officers . . . found so 
much encouragement, that, at a time appointed, they 
put themselves into the heads of their regiments, and 



SC. 2.] JTJLirS CJESAB. 283 

inarched with them into the field " {Id., Book ccvi.) ; 
u That Lord [Fairfax] had called together some of his 
old disbanded officers and soldiers, and many principal 
men of the country, and marched in the head of them 
into York" (Rid.); "Upon that very day they [the 
Parliament] received a petition, which they had fomented, 
presented . . . by a man notorious in those times, . . . 
Praise- God Barebone, in the head of a crowd of sectaries " 
(Ibid?) ; " He [the Chancellor] informed him [Admiral 
Montague] of Sir George Booth's being possessed of 
Chester, and in the head of an army" (Hid.). 

508. TJiey fall their crests. — This use of fall, as an 
active verb, is not common in Shakespeare ; but it may 
be found in writers of considerably later date. 

508. Sink in the trial. — One may suspect that it should 
be shrink. 

509. Instead of the stage direction " March within " 
at the end of this speech, the original text has " Low 
March within " in the middle of 508. And instead of 
"Enter Cassius and Soldiers," it is there " Enter Cassius 
and his powers." 

513, 514, 515. — The Within prefixed to these three 
speeches is the insertion of the modern editors. In the 
First Folio the three repetitions of the " Stand" are on 
so many distinct lines, but all as if they formed part of 
the speech of Brutus. Mr Collier has at 515 the Stage 
Direction, " One after the other, and fainter" 

519. Cassius, be content. — That is, be continent ; con- 
tain, or restrain, yourself. 

519. Speak your griefs softly. — Vid. 129 and 436. 

519. Nothing but love from us. — -From each of us to 
the other. 

519. Enlarge your griefs. — State them with all fulness 
of eloquent exposition ; as we still say Enlarge upon. — 
Vid. 129 and 436. Clarendon uses the verb to enlarge 



284 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IY. 

differently both from Shakespeare and from the modern 
language ; thus : — " As soon as his lordship [the Earl of 
Manchester] had finished his oration, which was received 
with marvellous acclamations, Mr Pym enlarged himself, 
in a speech then printed, upon the several parts of the 
King's answer" (Hist., Booh vi.). 

521. Lucius, do you the like ; etc. — The original text 
is — 

" Lucilliusy do you the like, and let no man 
Come to our tent, till we have done our Conference. 
Let Lucius and Titinius guard our doore." 

To cure the prosody in the first line, Steevens and other 
modern editors strike out the you. It is strange that 
no one should have been struck with the absurdity of 
such an association as Lucius and Titinius for the guard- 
ing of the door — an officer of rank and a servant boy — 
the boy, too, being named first. The function of Lucius 
was to carry messages. As Cassius sends Ms servant 
Pindarus with a message to his division of the force, 
Brutus sends his servant Lucius with a similar message 
to his division. Nothing can be clearer than that Lucilius 
in the first line is a misprint for Lucius, and Lucius in 
the third a misprint for Lucilius. Or the error may have 
been in the copy ; and the insertion of the Let was pro- 
bably an attempt of the printer, or editor, to save the 
prosody of that line, as the omission of the you is of the 
modern editors to save that of the other. The present 
restoration sets everything to rights. At the close of the 
conference we have Brutus, in 580, again addressing him- 
self to Lucilius and Titinius, who had evidently kept to- 
gether all the time it lasted. Lucius (who in the original 
text is commonly called the Boy) and Titinius are no- 
where mentioned together. In the heading of Scene 
III., indeed, the modern editors have again " Lucius and 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CJBSAE. 285 

Titinius at some distance ; " but this is their own manu- 
facture. All that we have in the old copies is, " Manet 
Brutus and Cassius." See also 571. 

SCENE III. — Within the Tent of Brutus. Lucilius and 
Titinius at some distance from it. 

Enter Beutus and Cassius. 

522. Cas. That you have wronged me doth appear in this : 
You have condemned and noted Lucius Pella 
For taking bribes here of the Sardians ; 
Wherein my letters, praying on his side, 
Because I knew the man, were slighted off. 
JBru. You wronged yourself, to write in such a case. 

524. Cas. In such a time as this, it is not meet 
That every nice offence should bear his comment. 

525. Bru. Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself 
Are much condemned to hare an itching palm, 
To sell and mart your offices for gold 

To undeservers. 

Cas. I an itching palm ? 
You know, that you are Brutus that speaks this, 
Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last. 
527. Bru. The name of Cassius honours this corruption, 
And chastisement doth therefore hide his head. 
Cas. Chastisement ! 

529. Bru. Remember March, the ides of March remember ! 
Did not great Julius bleed for justice sake ? 

What villain touched his body, that did stab, ■ 
And not for justice ? What, shall one of us, 
That struck the foremost man of all this world, 
Bat for supporting robbers, shall we now 
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes ? 
And sell the mighty space of our large honours 
For so much trash as may be grasped thus ? — 
I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, 
Than such a Roman. 

530. Cas. Brutus, bay not me; 

I'll not endure it : you forget yourself, 
To hedge me in : I am a soldier, I, 
Older in practice, abler than yourself 
To make conditions. 



286 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEKTABY. [ACT IT, 

531. Bru. Go to ; you are not, Cassius. 
Cas. I am. 
Bru. I say, you are not. 

534. Cas. Urge me no more, I shall forget myself; 
Have mind upon your health, tempt me no further. 

535. Bru. Away, slight man ! 
Cas. Is't possible ? 

537. Bru. Hear me, for I will speak. 

Must I give way and room to your rash choler ? 

Shall I be frighted, when a madman stares ? 
Cas. ye gods ! ye gods ! Must I endure all this ? 
539. Bru. All this ? Ay, more : Fret till your proud heart break ; 

Go, show your slaves how choleric you are, 

And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge ? 

Must I observe you ? Must I stand and crouch 

Under your testy humour ? By the gods, 

You shall digest the venom of your spleen. 

Though it do split you : for, from this day forth, 

I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter, 

When you are waspish. 
Cas. Is it come to this ? 

541. Bru. You say you are a better soldier: 
Let it appear so ; make your vaunting true, 
And it shall please me well : For mine own part, 
I shall be glad to learn of abler men. 

542. Cas. You wrong me every way, you wrong me, Brutus ; 
I said an elder soldier, not a better : 

Did I say, better ? 

Bru. If you did, I care not. 

Cas. When Csesar lived he durst not thus have moved me. 

Bru. Peace, peace ; you durst not so have tempted him. 

Cas. I durst not ? 

Bru. No. 

Cas. What ? durst not tempt him ? 

Bru. For your life you durst not. 

Cas. Do not presume too much upon my love : 
I may do that I shall be sorry for. 
551. Bru. You have done that you should be sorry for. 
There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats : 
For I am armed so strong in honesty, 
That they pass by me as the idle wind, 
Which I respect not. I did send to you 
For certain sums of gold, which you denied me ; — 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CJESAK. 287 

For I can raise no money by vile means : 

By heaven, I had rather coin my heart, 

Arid drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring 

From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash 

By any indirection. I did send 

To yon for gold to pay my legions, 

Which you denied me : Was that done like Cassins ? 

Should I have answered Caius Cassius so ? 

VvTien Marcus Brutus grows so covetous, 

To lock such rascal counters from his friends, 

Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts ; 

Dash him to pieces ! 

Cas. I denied you not. 

Bru. You did. 
554. Cas. I did not : — he was but a fool 

That brought my answer back. — Brutus hath rived my heart : 
A friend should bear his friend's infirmities, 
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. 

Bru. I do not, till you practise them on me. 

Cas. You love me not. 

Bru. I do not like your faults. 

Cas. A friendly eye could never see such faults. 

559. Bru, A flatterer's would not, though they do appear 
As huge as high Olympus. 

560. Cas. Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come, 
Eevenge yourselves alone on Cassius ! 

For Cassius is aweary of the world : 

Hated by one he loves ; braved by his brother ; 

Checked like a bondman ; all his faults observed, 

Set in a note-book, learned and conned by rote, 

To cast into my teeth. 0, I could weep 

My spirit from mine eyes ! — There is my dagger, 

And here my naked breast ; within, a heart 

Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold : 

If that thou beest a Roman, take it forth ; 

I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart : 

Strike, as thou didst at Caesar ; for, I know, 

When thou didst hate him worst, thou loved' st him better 

Than ever thou loved'st Cassius. 

561. Bru. Sheath your dagger : 

Be angry when you will, it shall have scope ; 
Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour. 
Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb, 



£88 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IT. 

That carries anger as the flint bears fire ; 
Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark, 
And straight is cold again. 
562. Cas. Hath Cassius lived 

To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, 
"When grief, and blood ill-tempered, vexeth him ? 

Bru. When I spoke that, I was ill-tempered too. 

Cas. Do you confess so much ? Give me your hand. 

Bru. And my heart too. 

Cas. Brutus ! — 

Bru. What's the matter ? 

568. Cas, Have not you love enough to bear with me, 
When that rash humour which my mother gave me 
Makes me forgetful ? 

569. Bru. Yes, Cassius; and from henceforth, 
When you are over- earnest with your Brutus, 

He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so. [Noise within. 

570. Poet, [within]. Let me go in to see the generals : 
There is some grudge between 'em ; 'tis not meet 
They be alone. 

571. Lucil. [within]. You shall not come to them. 
Poet, [within]. Nothing but death shall stay me. 

Enter Poet. 

Cas. How now ? What's the matter ? 

574. Poet. For shame, you generals ; What do you mean r 
Love, and be friends, as two such men should be ; 

For I have seen more years, I'm sure, than ye. 

575. Cas. Ha, ha ; how vilely doth this Cynic rhyme ! 
Bru. Get you hence, sirrah ; saucy fellow, hence ! 
Cas. Bear with him, Brutus ; 'tis his fashion. 

578. Bru. I'll know his humour when he knows his time : 
What should the wars do with these jigging fools ? 
Companion, hence ! 

Cas. Away, away, be gone ! [Exit Poet. 

Enter Lucilius and Titinius. 

580. Bru. Lucilius and Titinius, bid the commanders 
Prepare to lodge their companies to-night. 

581. Cas. And come yourselves, and bring Messala with you, 
Immediately to us. [Exeunt Lucilius and Titinius. 
Bru. Lucius, a bowl of wine. 

Cas. I did not think you could have been so angry. 
Bru. Cassius, I am sick of many griefs. 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CiESAR. 289 

Cas. Of your philosophy you make no use, 
If you give place to accidental evils. 

Bru. ISo man bears sorrow better : — Portia is dead. 
Cas. Ha ! Portia ? 
Bru. She is dead. 

589. Cas. How 'scaped I killing, when I crossed you so ? — 

insupportable and touching loss ! — 
Upon what sickness ? 

590. Bru. Impatient of my absence ; 

And grief, that young Octavius with Mark Antony 
Have made themselves so strong ; — for with her death 
That tidings came ; — with this she fell distract, 
And, her attendants absent, swallowed fire. 
Cas. And died so ? 
Bru. Even so. 
593. Cas. ye immortal gods ! 

Enter Lucres, with icine and tapers. 

Bru. Speak no more of her. — Give me a bowl of wine : — 
In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius. {Brinks. 

Cas. My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge : — 
Fill, Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup; 

1 cannot drink too much of Brutus' love. [Drinks. 

Re-enter Titinius, with Messala. 

596. Bru. Come in, Titinius : — Welcome, good Messala. — 
Xow sit we close about this taper here, 
And call in question our necessities. 
Cas. Portia, art thou gone ? 

598. Bru. No more, I pray you. — 
Messala, I have here received letters, 
That young Octavius, and Mark Antony, 
Come down upon us with a mighty power, 
Bending their expedition toward Philippi. 

599. Mess. Myself have letters of the self- same tenour. 
Bru. With what addition ? 

601. Mess. That by proscription, and bills of outlawry, 
Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus 
Have put to death an hundred senators. 

Bru. Therein our letters do not well agree : 
Mine speak of seventy senators that died 
By their proscriptions, Cicero being one. 
Cas. Cicero one ? 
604. Mess. Cicero is dead, 



290 PHILOLOQICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IV 

And by that order of proscription. — 

Had you your letters from your wife, my lord ? 

Bru. No, Messala. 

Mess. Nor nothing in your letters writ of her ? 

Bru. Nothing, Messala. 

Mess. That, methinks, is strange. 

Bru. Why ask you ? hear you aught of her in yours ? 

Mess. No, my lord. 

Bru. Now, as you are a Eoman, tell me true. 

Mess. Then like a Eoman bear the truth I tell : 
For certain she is dead, and by strange manner. 
613. Bru. Why, farewell, Portia. — "We must die, Messala : 
With meditating that she must die once, 
I have the patience to endure it now. 

Mess. Even so great men great losses should endure. 

615. Cas. I have as much of this in art as you, 
But yet my nature could not bear it so. 

616. Bru. Well, to our work alive. What do you think 
Of marching to Philippi presently ? 

Cas. I do not think it good. 
Bru. Your reason ? 

619. Cas. This it is : 

'Tis better that the enemy seek us : 
So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers, 
Doing himself offence ; whilst we, lying still, 
Are full of rest, defence, and nimbleness. 

620. Bru. Good reasons must, of force, give place to better. 
The people 'twixt Philippi and this ground 

Do stand but in a forced affection ; 
For they have grudged us contribution : 
The enemy, marching along by them, 
By them shall make a fuller number up, 
Come on refreshed, new-hearted, and encouraged ; 
From which advantage shall we cut him off 
If at Philippi we do face him there, 
These people at our back. 
Cas. Hear me, good brother. 
622. Bru. Under your pardon. — You must note beside, 
That we have tried the utmost of our friends : 
Our legions are brim -full, our cause is ripe ; 
The enemy increaseth every day ; 
We, at the height, are ready to decline. 
There is a tide in the affairs of men, 



SC. 3.] JULIUS 02BSAB. 291 

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 

Omitted, all the voyage of their life 

Is bound in shallows, and in miseries. 

On such a full sea are we now afloat ; 

And we must take the current when it serves, 

Or lose our ventures, 

623. Cas. Then, with your will, go on; 

We'll along ourselves, and meet them at Philippi. 

624. Bru. The deep of night is crept upon our talk. 
And nature must obey necessity ; 

Which we will niggard with a little rest. 
There is no more to say ? 

625. Cas. No more. Good night ; 

Early to-morrow will we rise, and hence. 

626. Bru. Lucius, my gown. [Exit Lucius. 

Farewell, good Messala ; — 
Good night, Titinius : — Noble, noble Cassius, 
Good night, and good repose. 

Cas. my dear brother, 
This was an ill beginning of the night : 
Never come such division 'tween our souls ! 
Let it not, Brutus. 

Bru. Everything is well. 

Cas. Good night, my lord. 

Bru. Good night, good brother. 

Tit. Mes. Good night, lord Brutus. 

Bru. Farewell, every one. 

\Exeunt Cassius, Titinius, and Messala. 

Re-enter Lucius, with the Gown. 

Give me the gown. Where is thy instrument ? 
Luc. Here, in the tent 

634. Bru. What, thou speak'st drowsily ? 

Poor knave, I blame thee not ; thou art o'erwatched, 
Call Claudius, and some other of my men ; 
I'll have them sleep on cushions in my tent. 

635. Luc. Yarro and Claudius ! 

Enter Varko and Claudius. 

Var. Calls my lord ? 
637. Bru. I pray you, sirs, lie in my tent, and sleep ; 
It may be, I shall raise you by and by 
On business to my brother Cassius. 
u 2 



292 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IT. 

Var. So please you, we will stand, and watch your pleasure. 
639. Bru. I will not have it so : lie down, good sirs; 
It may be 1 shall otherwise bethink me. 
Look, Lucius, here's the book I sought for so ; 
I put it in the pocket of my gown. [Servants lie down. 

Luc. I was sure your lordship did not give it me. 
641. Bru. Bear with me, good boy, I am much forgetful. 
Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile, 
And touch thy instrument a strain or two ? 

Luc. Ay, my lord, an't please you. 

Bru. It does, my boy : 
I trouble thee too much, but thou art willing. 

Luc. It is my duty, Sir. 
645. Bru. I should not urge thy duty past thy might ; 
I know young bloods look for a time of rest. 

Luc. I have slept, my lord, already. 
647. Bru. It was well done ; and thou shalt sleep again ; 
I will not hold thee long : if I do live, 

I will be good to thee. [Music and a song. 

This is a sleepy tune : — murderous slumber 
Lay'st thou thy leaden mace upon my boy, 
That plays thee music ? — Gentle knave, good night ; 
I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee. 
If thou dost nod, thou break' st thy instrument; 
I'll take it from thee ; and, good boy, good night. 
Let me see, let me see; — Is not the leaf turned down, 
Where I left reading ? Here it is, I think. [He sits down. 

Enter the Ghost of C^isar. 

How ill this taper burns ! — Ha ! who comes here ? 
I think, it is the weakness of mine eyes 
That shapes this monstrous apparition. 
It comes upon me : — Art thou anything ? 
Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, 
That mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare ? 
Speak to me what thou art. 

648. Ghost. Thy evil spirit, Brutus. 

649. Bru. Why com' st thou? 

Ghost. To tell thee, thou shalt see me at Philippi. 

651. Bru. Well ; then I shall see thee again ? 

652. Ghost. Ay, at Philippi. [Ghost vanishes 

653. Bru. Why, I will see thee at Philippi then. — 
Now I have taken heart, thou vanishest : 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CiESAK. 293 

111 spirit, I would hold more talk with thee. — 
Boy ! Lucius ! — Varro ! Claudius ! Sirs, awake ! — 
Claudius ! 

Luc. The strings, my lord, are false. 

Bru. He thinks, he still is at his instrument. — 
Lucius, awake. 

Luc. My lord ! 

Bru. Didst thou dream, Lucius, that thou so cried'st out ? 

Luc. My lord, I do not know that I did cry. 

Bru. Yes, that thou didst : Didst thou see anything r 

Luc. Xo thing, my lord. 
661. Bru. Sleep again, Lucius. — Sirrah, Claudius! 
Fellow thou ! awake. 

Var. My lord. 

Clau. My lord. 

Bru. Why did you so cry out, Sirs, in your sleep ? 

Var. Clau. Did we, my lord ? 

Bru. Ay : Saw you anything ? 

Var. Noj my lord, I saw nothing. 

Clau. Nor I, my lord. 
669. Bru. Go, and commend me to my brother Cassius ; 
Bid him set on his powers betimes before, 
And we will follow. 

Var. Clau. It shall be done, my lord. [Exeunt. 

522. Wherein my letters . . . were slighted off. — The 
printer of the first Folio, evidently misunderstanding 
the passage, gives us — 

" Wherein my Letters, praying on his side, 
Because I knew the man was slighted off." 

The Second Folio has — . 

' " Wherein my Letter, praying on his side, 
Because I knew the man, was slighted off..' ' 

The received reading, therefore, though probably right, is 
only conjectural ; unless we are to suppose, from its 
being adopted by Mr Collier, that it has the sanction of 
his manuscript annotator. Some of the modern editors 
print "slighted of." At a date considerably later than 
Shakespeare we have still slighted over (for to treat or 



294 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTAHY. [ACT IT. 

perform carelessly). It is used by Dry den in the end of 
the seventeenth century, as it had been by Bacon in the 
beginning. The connexion of the various modifications 
of the term slight is sufficiently obvious. They all involve 
the notion of quickly and easily escaping or being dis- 
patched and got rid of. Perhaps not only slight and sly, 
but even slide, and slink, and sleek ought to be referred 
to the same root. In that case the modern German 
schlau (sly) may be connected not only with schleichen 
(to move softly), but also with schlechi (plain, simple, 
honest) ; strange as it may be thought that the same 
element should denote slyness or cunning in one modifi- 
cation, and simplicity or straightforwardness in another. 

524. That every nice offence, etc Nice is the ancient 

native nesc or hnesc, tender, soft, gentle. In modern 
English the word always implies smallness or pettiness, 
though not always in a disparaging sense, but rather 
most usually in the contrary. So a pet, literally some- 
thing small, is the common name for anything that is 
loved and cherished For "his comment" see 54. 

525. Let me tell you, Cassius, etc. —Here we have a line 
with the first syllable wanting, which may be regarded as 
the converse of those wanting only the last syllable noticed 
in the note on 246. So, lower down, in 541, we have an- 
other speech of Brutus commencing, with like abruptness, 
with a line which wants the two first syllables : — " You 
say you are a better soldier." — For the true nature of the 
hemistich see the note on " Made in her concave shores" 
in 15. 

525. Are much condemned to have an itching palm. — To 
condemn to is now used only in the sense of sentencing to 
the endurance of. In the present passage the to intro- 
duces the cause, not the consequence, of the condemna- 
tion. "You are condemned" is used as a stronger ex- 
pression for you are said, you are alleged, you are charged. 
— An itching palm is a covetous palm ; as we say an itch 



SC. 3.] JULIUS C£SAE. 295 

for praise, an itch for scribbling, etc., or as in the trans- 
lation of the Bible we read, in 2 Tim. iv. 3, of people 
"having itching ears" (being exactly after the original, 
KvrjQojjLavoirrjv likoi]v), 

525. To sell and mart your offices. — To make merchan- 
dise, or matter of bargain and sale, of your appointments 
and commissions. Mart is held to be a contraction of 
market, which is connected with the Latin merx and 
mercor, and so with merchant, mercantile, commerce, etc. 

525. To undeservers. — We have lost both this sub- 
stantive and the verb to disserve (to do an injury to), 
which Clarendon uses ; though we still retain the ad- 
jective undeserving. 

527. And chastisement doth therefore. — All the old 
copies have doth. Mr Collier, however, in his one 
volume edition substitutes does. 

529, 530. And lay the moon. . . . 'Brutus, lay not me. 
— In the First Folio we have " lay the moon," and "lait 
not me ;" in all the others, " lait the moon" and " lait 
not me." Theobald suggested " lay the moon" and " lay 
not me ;" and it is a remarkable confirmation of this 
conjecture that it exactly accords with the reading given 
by Mr Collier's MS. annotator, who in 529 restores in 
the Second Folio the lay of the First, and in 530 corrects 
the lait of all the Folios into lay. To lay the moon is 
to bark at the moon ; and lay not me would, of course, be 
equivalent to bark not, like an infuriated dog, at me. 
Vid. 349. To lait, again, from the French lattre, might 
be understood to mean to attack with violence. So in 
Ilacleth, v. 7, we have "to be laited with the rabble's 
curse." It is possible that there may have been some 
degree of confusion in the minds of our ancestors between 
lait and lay, and that both words, imperfectly conceived 
in their import and origin, were apt to call up a more or 
less distinct notion of encompassing or closing in. Perhaps 
something of this is what runs in Cassius's head when he 



296 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IT. 

subjoins, "You forget yourself, To hedge me in" — although 
Johnson interprets these words as meaning " to limit my 
authority by your direction or censure." — The present 
passage may be compared with one in A Winter's 
Tale, ii. 3 : — 

" Who late hath beat her husband, 
And now baits me." 

A third Anglicized form of battre, in addition to beat 
and bait, is probably bate, explained by Wares as " a term 
in falconry ; to nutter the wings as preparing for flight, 
particularly at the sight of prey." Thus Petrucio, in 
The Taming of the Shrew, iv. 1, speaking of his wife, after 
observing that his " falcon now is sharp, and passing 
empty" (that is, very empty, or hungry), goes on to say 
that he has another way to man his haggard (that is, 
apparently, to reduce his wild hawk under subjection to 
man), 

" That is, to watch her, as we watch those kites 
That bate, and beat, and will not be obedient. 

Wares quotes the following passage from a letter of 
Bacon's as beautifully exemplifying the true meaning of 
the word :— " Wherein [viz. in matters of business] I 
would to G-od that I were hooded, that I saw less ; or 
that I could perform more : for now I am like a hawk 
that bates, when I see occasion of service ; but cannot fly, 
because I am tied to another's fist." The letter, which 
was first printed by Eawley in the First Part of the Re- 
suscitatio (1657), is without date, and is merely entitled 
" A Letter to Queen Elizabeth, upon the sending of a 
New-year's Gift." 

530. 1 am a soldier, I. — It is impossible to be quite 
certain whether the second / here be the pronoun or the 
adverb which we now write Ay. See the note on "I, as 
iEneas," in 54. 

530. To make conditions. — To arrange the terms on 
which offices should be conferred. 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CAESAR. 297 

531. Go fo.— Johnson, in his Dictionary, explains this 
expression as equivalent to " Come, come, take the right 
course" (meaning, contemptuously or sarcastically) . He 
adds, that, besides being thus used as " a scornful exhort- 
ation," it is also sometimes " a phrase of exhortation or 
encouragement ;" as in Gen. xi. 4, where the people, 
after the flood, are represented as saying, " Go to, let us 
build us a city and a tower," etc. But it must be under- 
stood to be used, again, in the scornful sense three verses 
lower down, where the Lord is made to say " Go to, let 
us go down, and there confound their language," etc. 

534. Have mind upon your health. — Mind, is here re- 
membrance, and health is welfare, or safety, generally ; 
senses which are both now obsolete. 

535. Away, slight man ! — Vid. 494 and 522. 

537. Sear me, for I will speak. — The emphasis is not 
to be denied to the ivill here, although it stands in the 
place commonly stated to require an unaccented syllable. 
Vid. 426, 436, and 613. 

539. Must I observe you? — Pay you observance, or 
reverential attention. 

541. You say you are a better soldier. — Vid. 525. 

541. I shall be glad to learn of abler men. — The old 
reading is "noble men;" abler is the correction of Mr 
Collier's MS. annotator. Even if this were a mere con- 
jecture, its claim to be accepted would be nearly irre- 
sistible. Noble here is altogether inappropriate. Cassius, 
as Mr Collier remarks, had said nothing about " noble 
men," whereas abler is the very expression that he had 
used (in 530) : — 

"I am a soldier, I, 
Older in practice, abler than yourself 
To make conditions." 

542. I said, an elder soldier. — This is the reading of all 
the old copies. Bat Mr Collier prints older. 

551. You have done that you should be sorry for. — The 



298 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEXTAKY. [ACT IV. 

emphasis, of course, is on should. The common meaning 
of shall, as used by Cassius, is turned, in Brutus's quick 
and unsparing replication, into the secondary meaning of 
should (ought to be). Vid. 181. 

551. Which I respect not. — Which I heed not. Here 
respect has rather less force of meaning than it has now 
acquired ; whereas observe in 539 has more than it now 
conveys. Respect in Shakespeare means commonly no 
more than what we now call regard or view. Thus, in 
The Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 1, Lysander says of his 
aunt, "She respects me as her only son;" and, in ii. 1, 
Helena says to Demetrius, " Tou, in my respect, are all 
the world." So, in The Merchant of Venice, v. 1, when 
Portia, on hearing the music from the lighted house as 
she approaches Belmont at night in company with 
Nerissa, says, — 

" Nothing is good, I see, without respect ; 
Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day," — 

she means merely that nothing is good without reference 
to circumstances, or that it is only when it is in accordance 
with the place and the time that any good thing can be 
really or fully enjoyed. As she immediately subjoins : — 

" How many things by season seasoned are 
To their right praise and true perfection ! " 

So afterwards Nerissa to Grratiano, — " Tou should have 
been respective, and have kept it" (the ring), — that is, you 
should have been mindful (of your promise or oath) . 

551. And drop my blood. — Expend my blood in drops. 

551. Than to ivring. — Although had rather (Vid. 54 and 
57), being regarded as of the nature of an auxiliary verb, 
does not in modern English take a to with the verb that 
follows it (Vid. 1), it does so here in virtue of being 
equivalent in sense to ivould or should prefer. 

551. By any indirection — Indirectness, as we should 
now say. 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CJESAB. 299 

551. To lock such rascal counters. — As to lock. Yid. 
403. Rascal means despicable. It is an Original English 
word, properly signifying a lean worthless deer. 

551. Be ready, gods, etc. — I cannot think that Mr 
Collier has improved this passage by removing the comma 
which we find in the old copies at the end of the first line, 
and so connecting the words " with all yonr thunderbolts." 
not with "Be ready." but with " Dash him to pieces." 

551. Dash him to pieces. — This is probably to be under- 
stood as the infinitive (governed by the preceding verb le 
ready) with the customary to omitted. Yid. 1. 

554. Brutus hatli rived my heart. — Yid. 107. 

559. A flatterer s would not, though they do appear. — 
This is the reading of all the old copies. 3Ir Collier's 
IMS. annotator gives " did appear." 

560. Revenge yourselves alone on Cassias. — In this line 
and the next we have Cassias used first as a trisyllable 
and immediately after as a dissyllable. 

560. For Cassias is aweary of the world. — Y\ natever 
may be its origin or proper meaning, many words were 
in the habit of occasionally taking a as a prefix in the 
earliest period of the language. Thence we have our 
modern English, arise, arouse, abide, await, awake, aweary, 
etc. Some of the words which are thus lengthened, how- 
ever, do not appear to have existed in the Original 
English ; while, on the other hand, many ancient forms 
of this kind are now lost. More or less of additional ex- 
pressiveness seems usually to be given by this prefix, in 
the case at least of such words as can be said to have in 
them anything of an emotional character. Shakespeare 
has used the present word in another of his most pathetic 
lines, — 3Iacbeth's "I 'gin to be aweary of the sun." — The 
a here seems to be the same element that we have in the 
i: Tom's-a-cold" of Lear, Hi. 4. and iv. 7, and also with the 
an that we have in the i; Wlien I was an-hungered^ of the 



300 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IT. 

New Testament, and Shakespeare's " They said they 
were an-hungry" (Coriol. i. 4). 

560. Conned by rote. — The Original English connan, or 
cunnan, signifying to know, and also to be able, — its pro- 
bable modification cunnian, to inquire, — and cennan, to 
beget or bring forth, appear to have all come to be con- 
founded in the breaking up of the old form of the lan- 
guage, and then to have given rise to our modern hen, 
and can, and con, and cunning, with meanings not at all 
corresponding to those of the terms with which they 
severally stand in phonetic connexion. Can is now used 
only as an auxiliary verb with the sense of to be able, 
though formerly it was sometimes employed with the 
same sense as a common verb. " In evil," says Bacon, in 
his 11th Essay (Of Great Place), " the best condition is 
not to will ; the second, not to can." Ken is still in use 
both as a verb and as a substantive. The verb JNares 
interprets as meaning to see, the substantive as meaning 
sight ; and he adds, " These words, though not current in 
common usage, have been so preserved in poetic language 
that they cannot properly be called obsolete. Instances 
are numerous in writers of very modern date. ... In 
Scotland these words are still in full currency." But 
the meaning of to Jcen in the Scottish dialect is not to 
see, but to know. And formerly it had also in English 
the one meaning as well as the other, as may be seen 
both in Spenser and in Shakespeare. The case is similar 
to that of the Greek eidu) (olSa) and eldiu). Cunning, 
again, instead of being the wisdom resulting from in- 
vestigation and experience, or the skill acquired by 
practice, as in the earlier states of the language, has now 
come to be understood as involving always at least some- 
thing concealed and mysterious, if not something of abso- 
lute deceit or falsehood. 

As for con its common meaning seems to be, not to 



SC. 3.] JULIUS C^SAR. 301 

know, but to get by heart, that is, to acquire a knowledge 
of in the most complete manner possible. And to con by 
rote is to commit to memory by an operation of mind 
similar to the turning of a wheel (rota), or by frequent 
repetition. Bote is the same word with routine. 

It is more difficult to explain the expression to con 
thanks, which is of frequent occurrence in our old writers 
and is several times used by Shakespeare. Nares explains 
it as meaning to study expressions of gratitude. But it 
really seems, in most instances at least, to signify no more 
than to give or return thanks. See a note on Gammer 
.Gurtorfs ^Needle in Collier's edition of Dodsley's Old 
Flays, II. 30. Con in the present passage may perhaps 
mean to utter or repeat ; such a sense might come not 
unnaturally out of the common use of the word in the 
sense of to get by heart. The case would be somewhat 
like that of the two senses assigned to the same word in 
the expressions "to construct a sentence" and "to con- 
strue a sentence." It is remarkable that in German also 
they say Dank wissen (literally to know thanks) for to 
give thanks. 

Our common know is not from any of the Original 
English verbs above enumerated, but is the modernized 
form of cnawan, which may or may not be related to all 
or to some of them. 

Corresponding to cennan and connan, it may finally be 
added, we have the modern German kennen, to know, and 
kbnnen, to be able or to know. But, whatever may be 
the case with the German Konig (a king), it is impossible 
to admit that our English king, the representative of the 
ancient cyng, cyncg, or cyning, can have anything to do 
with either cennan or connan. It is apparently of quite 
another family, that of which the head is cyn, nation, off- 
spring, whence our present kin, and kindred, and kind 
(both the substantive and the adjective). 

560. Dearer than Dlutus* mine. — Dear must here be 



302 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IY. 

understood, not in the derived sense of beloved, but in 
its literal sense of precious or of value. Vid. 349. It is 
" Pluto's mine" in all the Folios, and also in Rowe ; nor 
does it appear that the mistake is corrected by Mr Collier's 
MS. annotator, although it is, of course, in Mr Collier's 
regulated text. 

560. If that thou ieest a Soman. — Our modern sub- 
stantive verb, as it is called, is made up of fragments of 
several verbs, of which, at the least, a?n, was, and be are 
distinguishable, even if we hold is, as well as are and art, 
to belong to the same root with am (upon this point see 
Latham's Ting. Lang. 3rd edit. 346). In the original 
form of the language we have eom (sometimes am), waes 
(with waere and waeron, and wesan, and gewesen), beo 
(with bist or byst, beodh, beon, etc.), eart (or eardh), is 
(or ys) ; and also sy, seo, sig, synd, and syndon (related to 
the Latin sum, sunt, sim, sis, etc.), of which forms there 
is no trace in our existing English. On the other hand, 
there is no representative in the written English of the 
times before the Conquest of our modern plural are. 
JBeest, which we have here, is not to be confounded with 
the subjunctive be; it is bist, byst, the 2nd pers. sing, 
pres. indie, of beon, to be. It is now obsolete, but is 
also used by Milton in a famous passage : — " If thou beest 
he ; but oh how fallen ! how changed," etc. JP. L. i. 84. 

561. Dishonour shall be humour. — Vid. 205. — Any in- 
dignity you offer shall be regarded as a mere caprice of 
the moment. Humour here probably means nearly the 
same thing as in Cassius's " that rash humour which my 
mother gave me" in 568. The word had scarcely acquired 
in Shakespeare's age the sense in which it is now com- 
monly used as a name for a certain mental faculty or 
quality ; though its companion wit had already, as we 
have seen, come to be so employed. Vid. 436. But what if 
the true reading should be " dishonour shall be honour?" 

561. O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb. — Pope prints, 



sc. 3.] JULirs c^sae. 303 

on conjecture, "with a man " and "a, lamb" at any rate, 
can hardly be right. 

562. Blood ill-tempered. — We have now lost the power 
of characterizing the blood as ill-tempered (except in imita- 
tation of the antique), although we might perhaps speak 
of it as ill-attempered. The epithet ill-tempered, now 
only applied to the sentient individual, and with reference 
rather to the actual habit of the mind or nature than to 
that of which it is supposed to be the result, was formerly 
employed, in accordance with its proper etymological im- 
port, to characterize anything the various component in- 
gredients of which were not so mixed as duly to qualify 
each other. 

568. Have not you love enough to tear with me ? — This 
is the reading of all the old copies, and is that adopted by 
Mr Knight. Both the Variorum text, which is generally 
followed, and also Mr Collier in his regulated text give 
us " Have you not." 

569. Yes, Cassius; and from henceforth. — All the irregu- 
larity that we have in this line is the slight and common 
one of a superfluous short syllable (the ius of Cassius), 
Steevens, in his dislike to even this much of freedom of 
versification, and his precise grammatical spirit, would 
strike out the from, as redundant in respect both of the 
sense and of the measure. 

569. He'll think your mother chides. — To chide is from 
the ancient cid or cyd, signifying strife or contention. 
It is now scarcely in use except as an active verb with 
the sense of to reprove with sharpness ; but it was formerly 
used also absolutely or intransitively, as here, for to em- 
ploy chiding or angry expressions. Shakespeare has both 
to chide and to chide at. 

Instead of the stage direction " Noise within," the 
original edition has " Enter a Poet." 

570. Poet [within]. — The within is inserted here and 
. before the next two speeches by the modern editors. — 



304 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IY. 

The present incident (as well as the hint of the preceding 
great scene) is taken from Plutarch's life of Brutus. The 
intruder, however, is not a Poet in Plutarch, but one 
Marcus Pavonius, who affected to be a follower of Cato, 
and to pass for a Cynic philosopher. And it will be ob- 
served that he is called a Cynic in the dialogue. There 
was probably no other authority than the Prompter's 
book for designating him a Poet, 

571. Lucil. [within']. You shall not come to them. — In 
the Variorum and the other modern editions, although 
they commonly make no distinction between the abbrevi- 
ation for Lucilius and that for Lucius, this speech must 
be understood to be assigned to Lucius, whose presence 
alone is noted by them in the heading of the scene. But 
in the old text the speaker is distinctly marked Lucil. 
This is a conclusive confirmation, if any were wanting, of 
the restoration in 521. How is it that the modern editors 
have one and all of them omitted to acknowledge the uni- 
versal deviation here from the authority which they all 
profess to follow ? Not even Jennens notices it. 

574. For L have seen more years, Pm sure, than ye. — 
Plutarch makes Pavonius exclaim, in the words of Nestor 
in the Pirst Book of the Iliad : — 

'AXXd 7^l0£(70' , dfjupu) de vewrepw sgtov sfielo' — 

which North translates, 

" My Lords, I pray you hearken both to me ; 
For I have seen more years than such ye three." 

But this last line can hardly be correctly printed. — The • 
Poet's quotation, it may be noted, is almost a repetition 
of what Antony has said to Octavius in 496. 

575. Ha, ha ; how vilely doth this Cynic rhyme! — The 
form of the word in all the Polios is vildely, or vildly ; 
and that is the form which it generally, if not always, 
has in Shakespeare. The modern editors, however, have 
universally substituted the form now in use, as with then 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CJSSAE. 305 

(for than), and (for art), and other words similarly circum- 
stanced. 

578. Til know his humour when he knows his time. — In 
this line we have what the rule as commonly laid down 
would make to be necessarily a short or unaccented syl- 
lable carrying a strong emphasis no fewer than four times : 
— 1 ' 11 — h is — h e — his . 

578. With these jigging fools.— u That is," Malone 
notes, " with these silly poets. A jig signified, in our 
author's time, a metrical composition, as well as a dance." 
Capell had proposed jingling. 

578. Companion, hence ! — The term companion was 
formerly used contemptuously, in the same way in which 
we still use its synonyme fellow. The notion originally 
involved in companionship, or accompaniment, would ap- 
pear to have been rather that of inferiority than of equality. 
A companion (or comes) was an attendant. The Comites 
of the imperial court, whence our modern Counts or Earls, 
and other nobility, were certainly not regarded as being 
the equals of the Emperor, any more than a Companion 
to a lady is now looked upon as the equal of her mistress. 
We have our modern fellow from the ancient native 
felaw ; companion (with company) immediately from the 
French compagnon and the Italian compagno, which have 
been variously deduced from com-panis, com-paganus, corn- 
lino (Low Latin, from oinus), com-lenno (one of two or 
more riders in the same henna, or cart), etc. See 
Menage, Die. Etym. de la Langue Frang. But, after all, 
Dr Webster may be right in what he says under the 
word Company : — "Erom cum anip annus, cloth, Teutonic 
fahne, or vaan, a flag. The word denotes a band or 
number of men under one flag or standard. What de- 
cides this question is, the Spanish mode of writing the 
word with n tilde, titled n, compania, for this is the 
manner of writing pano, cloth ; whereas panis, bread, is 
written pan. The orthography of the word in the other 



303 PHILOLOaiCAL COAT^IE^TAET. [ACT IT. 

languages is confirmatory of this opinion." — "We have an 
instance of the use of Companion in the same sense in 
which we still commonly employ fellow even in so late a 
work as Smollett's Roderick Random, published in 1748 : 
— "The young ladies [Roderick's cousins], who thought 
themselves too much concerned to contain themselves 
any longer, set up their throats all together against my 
protector [his uncle, Lieutenant Bowling]. 'Scurvy 
companion ! Saucy tarpaulin ! Rude impertinent fellow ! 
Did he think to prescribe to grandpapa!' " Vol. I. ch. 3. 
In considering this meaning of the terms companion and 
fellow we may also remember the proverb which tells us 
that " Familiarity breeds Contempt." 

Neither the entry nor the exit of Lucilius and Titinius 
is noticed in the old copies. 

580. Lucilius and Titinius, lid the commanders. — The 
only irregularity in the prosody of this line is the common 
one of the one superfluous short syllable, the ius of 
Titinius. 

581. Immediately to us, etc. — If this, as may be the 
case, is to form a complete line with the words of Brutus 
that follow, two of the six syllables must be regarded as 
superabundant. But there might perhaps be a question 
as to the accentuation of the us. 

589. Upon what sickness ? — That is, after or in con- 
sequence of what sickness. It is the same use of upon 
which we have in 458, and which is still familiar to us in 
such phrases as " upon this," "upon that," "upon his 
return," etc., though we no longer speak of a person 
dying upon a particular sickness or disease. 

590. Impatient of my absence ; etc. — This speech is 
throughout a striking exemplification of the tendency of 
strong emotion to break through the logical forms of 
grammar, and of how possible it is for language to be 
perfectly intelligible and highly expressive, sometimes, 
with the grammar in a more or less chaotic or uncertain 



SC. 3.] JULIUS C-ESAR. 307 

state. It does not matter much whether we take grief to 
be a nominative, or a second genitive governed by im- 
patient. In principle, though not perhaps according to 
rule and established usage, " Octavius with Mark Antony " 
is as much entitled to a plural verb as " Octavius and 
Mark Antony." Tidings, which is a frequent word with 
Shakespeare, is commonly used by him as a plural noun ; 
in this same Play we have afterwards "these tidings" in 
729 ; but there are other instances besides the present in 
which it is treated as singular. It is remarkable that we 
should have exactly the same state of things in the case 
of the almost synonymous term news (the final s of which, 
however, has been sometimes attempted to be accounted 
for as a remnant of -ess or -ness, though its exact corre- 
spondence in form with the French nouvelles, of the same 
signification, would seem conclusively enough to indicate 
what it really is). At any rate tiding and new (as a sub- 
stantive) are both alike unknown to the language. 

590. She fell distract. — In Shakespeare's day the 
language possessed the three forms distracted, distract, 
and distraught ; he uses them all. "We have now only 
the first. 

593. The original stage direction here is, "Enter Boy 
tvith Wine and Tapers." The second "Drinks" at the 
end of 595 is modern ; and the "Re-enter Titinius" etc., 
is " Enter" in the original. 

596. And call in question. — Here we have probably 
rather a figurative expression of the poet than a common 
idiom of his time. Then as well as now, we may suppose, 
it was not things, but only persons, that were spoken of 
in ordinary language as called in question. 

598. Bending their expedition. — Rather what we should 
now call their march (or movement) — though perhaps im- 
plying that they were pressing on — than their expedi- 
tion (or enterprise). 

599. Myself have letters. — "We have now lost the right 

x 2 



308 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEISTAEY. [ACT IT. 

of using such forms as either myself or himself as sufficient 
nominatives, though they still remain perfectly unobjec- 
tionable accusatives. "We can say " He struck myself," 
and "I saw himself;" but it must be " I myself struct 
him," and "He himself saw it." Here, as everywhere 
else, in the original text the myself is in two words, " My 
selfe." And tenour in all the Folios, and also in both 
Howe's edition and Pope's, is tenure, a form of the word 
which we now reserve for another sense. 

601. That hy proscription, and hills of outlawry.— The 
word outlawry taking the accent on the first syllable, 
this line will be most naturally read by being regarded 
as characterised by the common peculiarity of a super- 
numerary short syllable — the Hon or the and — to be dis- 
posed of, as usual, by the two being rapidly enunciated as 
one. It will in this way be exactly of the same prosody 
with another that we have presently : — " Struck Caesar 
on the neck. — you flatterers" (690). It might, indeed, 
be reduced to perfect regularity by the tion being dis- 
tributed into a dissyllable — ti-on — , in which case the 
prosody would be completed at out, and the two follow- 
ing unaccented syllables would count for nothing (or be 
what is called hypercatalectic), — unless, indeed, any one 
should insist upon taking them for an additional foot, 
and so holding the verse to be an Alexandrine. But 
taste and probability alike protest against either of these 
ways of managing the matter. (See what is said in re- 
gard to the dissyllabication of the tion or sion by Shake- 
speare in the note on 246. She dreamt to-night she saw my 
statue). -Nay, even the running together of the tion and 
the and is not necessary, nor the way that would be taken 
by a good reader; that is not how the line would be read, 
but only how it might be scanned : in reading it, the and 
would be rather combined with the hills, and a short pause 
would, in fact, be made after the tion, as the pointing and 
the sense require. So entirely unfounded is the notion 



SC. 3.] JULIUS C^ISAE. 309 

that a pause, of whatever length, occurring in the course 
of a verse can ever have anything of the prosodical effect 
of a word or syllable. 

604. Cicero is dead. — In the original printed text 
these words are run into one line with " and by that 
order of proscription." The text of the Variorum edi- 
tion presents the same arrangement, with the addition of 
Ay as a prefix to the whole. " For the insertion of the 
affirmative adverb, to complete the verse," says Steevens 
in a note, " I am answerable." According to Jennens, 
however, this addition was also made by Capell. In any 
case, it is plain that, if we receive the Ay, we must make 
two lines, the first ending with the word dead. But we 
are not entitled to exact or to expect a perfect observance 
of the punctilios of regular prosody in such brief expres- 
sions of strong emotion as the dialogue is here broken 
up into. What do the followers of Steevens profess to 
be able to make, in the way of prosody, of the very next 
utterance that we have from Brutus, — the " ISTo, Messala" 
of 605? The best thing we can do is to regard Cassius's 
" Cicero one ? " and Messala' s responsive " Cicero is 
dead " either as hemistichs (the one the commencement, 
the other the conclusion, of a line), or, if that view be 
preferred, as having no distinct or precise prosodical cha- 
racter whatever. Every sense of harmony and propriety, 
however, revolts against running " Cicero is dead " into 
the same line with " And by that order," etc. 

613. With meditating that she must die once.- — For this 
use of with see 363. — Once has here the same meaning 
which it has in such common forms of expression as 
" Once, when I was in London," " Once upon a time," 
etc. — that is to say it means once without, as in other 
cases, restriction to that particular number. Steevens, 
correctly enough, interprets it as equivalent to " at some 
time or other ;" and quotes in illustration, from The 
Merry Wives of Windsor, Hi. 4, " I pray thee, once to- 



310 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEXTAET. [ACT IV, 

niglit G-ive my sweet Nan this ring." — The prosody of the 
line is the same that has been noted in 426, 436, and 537. 

615. i" have as much of this in art as you, etc. — In art 
Malone interprets to mean " in theory." It rather 
signifies by acquired knowledge, or learning, as dis- 
tinguished from natural disposition. The passage is one 
of the many in our old poets, more especially Shakespeare 
and Spenser, running upon the relation between nature 
and art. 

616. Well, to our work alive. — This must mean, ap- 
parently, let us proceed to our living business, to that 
which concerns the living, not the dead. The commen- 
tators say nothing, though the expression is certainly one 
that needs explanation. 

619. This it is. — " The overflow of the metre," Steevens 
observes, "and the disagreeable clash of it is with 'Tis at 
the beginning of the next line, are almost proofs that our 
author only wrote, with a common ellipsis, This" He 
may very possibly be right. The expression " This it is" 
sounds awkward otherwise, as well as prosodically ; and 
the superfluous, or rather encumbering, it is would be 
accounted for by supposing the commencement of the 
following line to have been first so written and then 
altered to 'Tis. 

620. Good reasons must, of force. — "We scarcely now say 
of force (for of necessity, or necessarily) ; although perforce 
continues to be sometimes still employed in poetry. It 
may even be doubted if this be Milton's meaning in 

" — our conqueror (whom I now 
Of force believe almighty, since no less 
Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours)." — 

P. L. i. 145. 

620. The enemy, marching along hy the?n. — This line, 
with the two weak syllables in the last places of two 
continuous feet (the second and third) might seem at 
first to be of the same kind with the one noted in 601. 



SC. 3.] JULIUS C^SAH. 311 

But the important distinction is, that the first of the two 
weak syllables here, the -y of enemy, would in any cir- 
cumstances be entitled to occupy the place it does in our 
heroic verse, in virtue of the principle that in English 
prosody every syllable of a polysyllabic word acquires the 
privilege or character of a strong syllable when it is as far 
removed from the accented syllable of the word as the 
nature of the verse requires. See Prolegomena, Sect. vi. 
The dissonance here, accordingly, is very slight in com- 
parison with what we have in 601. — For " Along by 
them" see 200. 

620. By them shall make a fuller number up. — For this 
use of shall seethe note on Ccesar should be a beast in 238. 
— The "along by them" followed by the "by them" is 
an artifice of expression, which may be compared with 
the " by Caesar and by you" of 345. 

620. Come on refreshed, new-hearted, and encouraged, 
— "New-hearted" is the correction of Mr Collier's MS. 
annotator; the old reading is new-added, which is not 
English or sense, and the only meaning that can be 
forced out of which, besides, gives us merely a repetition 
of what has been already said in the preceding line, a 
repetition which is not only unnecessary but would be 
introduced in the most unnatural way and place pos- 
sible, whereas new-hearted is the very sort of word that 
one would expect to find where it stands, in association 
with refreshed and encouraged. 

620. Prom which advantage shall we cut him off. — Shake- 
speare most probably wrote we shall. 

622. Under your pardon. — Vid. 358. 

622. We, at the height, etc. — Being at the height, are 
in consequence ready to decline — as the tide begins to 
recede as soon as it has attained the point of full flood. 

622. Omitted. — The full resolution will be — which tide 
being omitted to be taken at the flood. 

623. Then, with your will, etc. — In the original edition 



312 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENT AET. [ACT IT. 

" We'll along" is made part of the first line. Mr Collier 
prints, it does not appear on what, or whether on any, 
authority, " we will along," as had been done on con- 
jecture by Eowe, Pope, and others. The " "We'll along" 
gives us merely the very common slight irregularity of a 
single superabundant syllable. — " With your will" is 
equivalent to With your consent; "We'll along" to We 
will onward. But the passage is probably corrupt. 

624. The deep of night is crept. — Vid. 374. This is 
the reading of all the old copies. But Mr Collier prints 
" has crept." 

624. Which we will niggard. — Niggard is common 
both as a substantive and as an adjective ; but this is 
probably the only passage in the language in which it is 
employed as a verb. Its obvious meaning is, as John- 
son gives it in his Dictionary, " to stint, to supply spar- 
ingly." 

624. There is no more to say. — There is no more for us 
to say. So, " I have work to do," "He has a house to 
let," etc. In Ireland it is thought more correct to an- 
nounce a house as to be let ; but that would rather mean 
that it is going to be let. 

625. Early to-morrow luill ive rise, andhence. — It might 
almost be said that the adverb hence is here turned into a 
verb ; it is construed exactly as rise is : — " Will we rise," 
— " will we hence." So, both with hence and home, in 
the opening line of the Play : — 

11 Hence ; home, you idle creatures." 

626. Lucius, my gown, etc. — The best way of treating 
the commencement of this speech of Brutus is to regard 
the words addressed to Lucius as one hemistich and 
"Farewell, good Messala" as another. There are, in 
fact, two speeches. It is the same case that we have in 
506. — In the old editions the stage directions are ; after 
625, " Enter Lucius," and then, again, after 627, " Enter 



sc. 3.] JULirs c^sae. 318 

Lucius with the gown." After 632 there is merely 
"Exeunt." 

634. Poor knave, I llame thee not; thou art o'er- 
loatched. — For knave see 647. — C? er -watched, or over- 
watched, is used in this sense, of worn ont with watching, 
by other old writers as well as by Shakespeare, however 
irreconcilable such an application of it may be with the 
meaning of the verb to watch. "We have it again in 
Lear, ii. 2 : — 

"All weary and o'erwatched, 
Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold 
This shameful lodging." 

634. Some other of my men. — By some other we should 
now mean some of a different sort. For some more we 
say some others. But, although other thus used as a sub- 
stantive, with the plural of the ordinary form, is older 
than the time of Shakespeare, I do not recollect that he 
anywhere has others. Isot does it occur, I believe, even 
in Clarendon. On the other hand, it is frequent in 
Milton. 

634. Pll have them sleep. — Such expressions as this, 
which are still familiar, show that have ought to be added 
to the verbs enumerated in the note on " You ought not 
walk," in 1, which may be followed by another verb with- 
out the prefix to. 

635. Varro and Claudius ! — In the old copies it is 
" Varrus and Claudio," both in the speech and in the 
stage direction that follows. 

637. L pray you, Sirs. — Common as the word Sir still 
is, we have nearly lost the form Sirs. It survives, how- 
ever, in the Scottish dialect, with the pronunciation of 
Sirce, as the usual address to a number of persons, much 
as Masters was formerly in English, only that it is ap- 
plied to women as well as to men. 

639. Servants lie clown. — This stage direction is 
modern. 



314 PHILOLOGICAL COMME^TAKY. [ACT IY. 

641. Canst thou "hold up, etc. — This and the next line 
are given in the Second Folio in the following blunder- 
ing fashion, the result no doubt of an accidental displace- 
ment of the types : — 

" Canst thou hold up thy instrument a strains or two. 
And touch thy heavy eyes a- while." 

The transposition is corrected by Mr Collier's MS. an- 
notator. 

645. I know young Hoods look. — Vid. 56. 

647. It was ivell done. — So in the old copies ; but the 
Variorum edition has " It is" in which it has been follow- 
ed by other modern editors, — though not by either Mr 
Knight or Mr Collier. 

647. Gentle knave, good nigJit. — Knave, from the ancient 
en of a, or cnapa, having meant originally only a boy, and 
meaning now only a rogue, was in Shakespeare's time 
in current use with either signification. It was in its 
state of transition from the one to the other, and con- 
sequently of fluctuation between the two. The German 
Knahe still retains the original sense. 

647. I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee. — 
Vid. 408. 

The stage direction " He sits down" is modern. 

647. It comes upon me. — It advances upon me. 

647. Speak to me what thou art. — We scarcely now use 
speak thus, for to announce or declare generally. 

648, 649. Thy evil spirit, Brutus, etc. — It is absurd to 
attempt, as the modern editors do, to make a complete 
verse out of these two speeches. It cannot be supposed 
that Brutus laid his emphasis on thou. The regularities 
of prosody are of necessity neglected in such brief utter- 
ances, amounting in some cases to mere ejaculations or 
little more, as make up the greater part of the remainder 
of this scene. 

651. Well ; then I shall see thee again ? — So the words 



sc. 3.] jrLirs cesar. SI 5 

stand in the old copies. Nothing whatever is gained by 
printing the words in two lines, the first consisting only 
of the word Well, as is done by the generality of the 
modern editors. 

652. Ghost vanishes. — This stage direction is not in 
the old editions.— Steevens has objected that the appa- 
rition conld not be at once the shade of Caesar and the 
evil genius of Brutus. Shakespeare's expression is the 
evil spirit of Brutus, by which apparently is meant no- 
thing more than a supernatural visitant of evil omen. At 
any rate, the present apparition is afterwards, in 774, 
distinctly stated by Brutus himself to have been the 
ghost of the murdered Dictator : — 

" The ghost of Caesar hath appeared to me 
Two several times by night : at Sardis, once ; " etc. 

So, also, in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 6, — 

" Since Julius Caesar, 
"WTio at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted." 

Perhaps we might also refer to 744 : — 

" Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet 
Thy spirit walks abroad," etc. ; 

and to " Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge," in 363. 

It may be well to append the two accounts of the inci- 
dent given by Plutarch, as translated by jNTorth. In the 
life of Brutus the apparition is described merely as "a 
wonderful strange and monstruous shape of a body," and 
the narrative proceeds :— " Brutus boldly asked what he 
was, a god or a man, and what cause brought him thither. 
The spirit answered him, I am thy evil spirit, Brutus ; 
and thou shalt see me by the city of Philippi. Brutus, 
being no otherwise afraid, replied again unto it, Well, 



316 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT IY. 

then, I shall see thee again. The spirit presently vanish- 
ed away ; and Brutus called his men unto him, who told 
him that they heard no noise nor saw anything at all." 
In the life of Caesar the account is as follows : — " Above 
all, the ghost that appeared unto Brutus showed plainly 
that the gods were offended with the murder of Caesar. 
The vision was thus. Brutus, being ready to pass over 
his army from the city of Abydos to the other coast 
lying directly against it, slept every night (as his man- 
ner was) in his tent, and, being yet awake, thinking of 
his affairs, ... he thought he heard a noise at his tent 
door, and, looking toward the light of the lamp that 
waxed very dim, he saw a horrible vision of a man, of a 
wonderful greatness and dreadful look, which at the first 
made him marvellously afraid. But when he saw that it 
did him no hurt, but stood at his bed-side and said nothing, 
at length he asked him what he was. The image answer- 
ed him, I am thy ill angel, Brutus, and thou shalt see me 
by the city of Philippi. Then Brutus replied again, and 
said, Well, I shall see thee then. Therewithal the spirit 
presently vanished from him." 

It is evident that Shakespeare had both passages in 
his recollection, though the present scene is chiefly 
founded upon the first. Plutarch, however, it will be 
observed, nowhere makes the apparition to have been the 
ghost of Caesar. 

653. Why, I will see thee. — This is an addition by 
Shakespeare to the dialogue as given by Plutarch in both 
lives. And even Plutarch's simple affirmative / shall 
see thee appears to be converted into an interrogation in 
651. It is remarkable that in our next English Plutarch, 
which passes as having been superintended by Dryden, 
we have " I will see thee " in both lives. The Greek is, 
in both passages, merely "O^ofiai (I shall see thee). 

653. Soy! Lucius I — Varroi Claudius I — Here again, 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CJESAE. 317 

as in 635, all the Polios, in this and the next line, have 
Varrus and Claudio. So also in 661. 

661. Sleep again, Lucius, etc. — It is hardly necessary 
to attempt to make verse of this. In the original text 
Fellow is made to stand as part of the first line. 

669. Go, and commend me to my brother Cassius. — Vid. 
279. 

669. Bid him set on Ms powers betimes before. — The 
only sense which the expression to set on now retains 
is to excite or instigate to make an attack. The other 
senses which it had in Shakespeare's day may be seen 
from 27 (" Set on ; and leave no ceremony out ") ; from 
the passage before us, in which it means to lead forward 
or set out with ; from 714 (" Let them set on at once ") ; 
from 746 (" Labeo and Flavius, set our battles on"). — 
Betimes (meaning early) is commonly supposed to be a 
corruption of by times, that is, it is said, by the proper 
time. But this is far from satisfactory. Shakespeare has 
occasionally betime. 



ACT V. 

SCENE I.— The Plains of Philippi. 

Enter Octavius, Antony, and their Army, 

671. Oct. Now, Antony, our hopes are answered : 
Yon said, the enemy would not come down, 
But keep the hills and upper regions : 

It proves not so ; their battles are at hand ; 
They mean to warn us at Philippi here, 
Answering before we do demand of them. 

672. Ant. Tut, I am in their bosoms, and I know 
Wherefore they do it : they could be content 



318 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT V. 

To visit other places ; and come down 
"With fearful bravery, thinking, by this face, 
To fasten in onr thoughts that they have courage ; 
But 'tis not so. 

Enter a Messengek. 

Mess. Prepare you, generals : 
The enemy comes on in gallant show ; 
Their bloody sign of battle is hung out, 
And something to be done immediately. 

674. Ant. Octavius, lead your battle softly on, 
Upon the left hand of the even field. 

675. Oct. Upon the right hand I ; keep thou the left. 

676. Ant. Why do you cross me in this exigent ? 

Oct. I do not cross you ; but I will do so. [March. 

Drum. Enter Bkuttjs, Cassius, and their Army ; Lucilius, 
Titinius, Messala, and others. 

678. Bru. They stand, and would have parley. 

Cas. Stand fast, Titinius : We must out and talk. 

680. Oct. Mark Antony, shall we give sign of battle ? 

681. Ant. No, Caesar, we will answer on their charge. 
Make forth ; the generals would have some words. 

Oct. Stir not until the signal. 

Bru. Words before blows : Is it so, countrymen ? 

Oct. Not that we love words better, as you do. 

Bru. Good words are better than bad strokes, Octavius. 

Ant. In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words : 
Witness the hole you made in Caesar's heart, 
Crying, Long live ! hail, Ccesar ! 
687. Cas. Antony, 

The posture of your blows are yet unknown ; 
But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees, 
And leave them honeyless. 

Ant. Not stingless too. 

Bru. 0, yes, and soundless too ; 
For you have stolen their buzzing, Antony, 
And, very wisely, threat before you sting. 
690. Ant. Villains, you did not so, when your vile daggers 
Hacked one another in the sides of Caesar : 
You showed your teeth like apes, and fawned like hounds, 
And bowed like bondmen, kissing Caesar's feet ; 
Whilst damned Casca, like a cur, behind, 
Struck Caesar on the neck. you flatterers ! 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^ISAE. 319 

691. Cas. Flatterers ! — Now, Brutus, thank yourself: 
This tongue had not offended so to-day, 

If Cassius might have ruled. 

692. Oct. Come, come, the cause : If arguing make us sweat, 
The proof of it will turn to redder drops. 

Look ; 

I draw a sword against conspirators ; 

When think you that the sword goes up again ? — ■ 

Never, till Caesar's three and thirty wounds 

Be well avenged ; or till another Caesar 

Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors. 

693. Bru. Csesar, thou canst not die "by traitors' hands, 
Unless thou "bring' st them with thee. 

Oct. So I hope ; 
I was not born to die on Brutus' sword. 
695. Bru. 0, if thou wert the noblest of thy strain, 
Young man, thou could' st not die more honourable. 

Cas. A peevish schoolboy, worthless of such honour, 
Joined with a masker and a reveller. 

Ant. Old Cassius still ! 
698. Oct. Come, Antony; away.— ■ 

Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth ; 
If you dare fight to-day, come to the field ; 
If not, when you have stomachs. 

[Exeunt OctaviUS, Antony, and their Army. 

Cas. "Why now, blow, wind ; swell, billow ; and swim, bark ! 
The storm is up, and all is on the hazard. 
700. Bru. Ho ! Lucilius ; hark, a word with you. 

Lucil. My lord. [Brutus and Lucilius converse apart. 

Cas. Messala, — 

Mes. What says my general ? 
704. Cas. Messala, 

This is my birth- day ; as this very day 

Was Cassius born. Give me thy hand, Messala : 

Be thou my witness, that, against my will, 

As Pompey was, am I compelled to set 

Upon one battle all our liberties. 

You know, that I held Epicurus strong, 

And his opinion : now I change my mind, 

And partly credit things that do presage. 

Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign 

Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perched, 

Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands ; 



320 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT 

Who to Philippi here consorted us ; 

This morning are they fled away, and gone ; 

And in their steads, do ravens, crows, and kites 

Fly o'er our heads, and downward look on us, 

As we were sickly prey ; their shadows seem 

A canopy most fatal, under which 

Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost. 

Mes. Believe not so. 
706. Cas. I hut believe it partly ; 

For I am fresh of spirit, and resolved 
To meet all perils very constantly. 

Bru. Even so, Lucilius. 

708. Cas. Now, most noble Brutus, 

The gods to-day stand friendly ; that we may, 

Lovers in peace, lead on our days to age ! 

But, since the affairs of men rest still uncertain, 

Let's reason with the worst that may befall. 

If we do lose this battle, then is this 

The very last time we shall speak together : 

"What are you then determined to do ? 

709. Bru, Even by the rule of that philosophy, 
By which I did blame Cato for the death 
Which he did give himself, I know not how, 
But I do find it cowardly and vile, 

For fear of what might fall, so to prevent 
The term of life ; — arming myself with patience, 
To stay the providence of those high powers 
That govern us below. 

Cas. Then, if we lose this battle, 
You are contented to be led in triumph 
Thorough the streets of Borne ? 
711. Bru. No, Cassius, no : think not, thou noble Boman, 
That ever Brutus will go bound to Borne ; 
He bears too great a mind. But this same day 
Must end that work, the ides of March begun ; 
And whether we shall meet again, I know not. 
Therefore our everlasting farewell take : — 
For ever, ant for ever, farewell, Cassius ! 
If we do meet again, why we shall smile ; 
If not, why then this parting was well made. 

Cas. For ever, and for ever, farewell, Brutus 
If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed ; 
If not, 'tis true, this parting was well made. 



SC. 1.] JTJLIT7S C^SAE. 321 

Bru. Why then, lead on.— 0, that a man might know 
The end of this day's business, ere it come ! 
But it sufficeth, that the day will end, 
And then the end is known. — Come, ho ! away ! [Exeunt. 

The heading, — "Scene I. The plains of Bhilippi" — 
is modern, as usual. 

671. Their lattles are at hand. — Battle is common in 
our old writers with the sense of a division of an army, 
or what might now be called a battalion. So again in 
674. "When employed more precisely the word means 
the central or main division. 

671. They mean to warn us. — To warn was formerly 
the common word for what we now call to summon. 
Persons charged with offences, or against whom com- 
plaints were made, were teamed to appear to make their 
answers ; members were warned to attend the meetings 
of the companies or other associations to which they be- 
longed ; and in war either of the hostile parties, as here, 
was said to be warned when in any way called upon or 
appealed to by the other. Thus in King John, ii. 
1, the citizens of Angiers, making their appearance in 
answer to the French and English trumpets, exclaim, 
""Who is it that hath warned us to the walls?" The 
word, which is connected with ware and icary, is from the 
Original English warnian. But the Anglo-Norman dia- 
lect of the French has also garner and gamisher with the 
same meaning. 

672, With fearful hravery. — Malone's notion is, that 
"fearful is used here, as in many other places, in an 
active sense,— producing fear — intimidating." But the 
utmost, surely, that Antony can be understood to admit 
is that their show of bravery was intended to intimidate. 
It seems more consonant to the context to take fearful 
bravery for bravery in show or appearance, which yet is 
full of real fear or apprehension. Steevens suggests that 
the expression is probably to be interpreted by the fol- 



322 PHILOLOGICAL COMME^TAKY. [ACT V. 

lowing passage from the Second Book of Sidney's Arca- 
dia : — " Her horse, fair and lusty ; which she rid so as 
might show a fearful boldness, daring to do that which 
she knew that she knew not how to do." The meaning 
is only so as showed (not so as should show). In like 
manner a few pages before we have ; " But his father had 
so deeply engraved the suspicion in his heart, that he 
thought his flight rather to proceed of & fearful guiltiness, 
than of an humble faithfulness." 

672. By this face. — By this show or pretence of 
courage. 

672. To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage. 
— We have now lost the power of construing to fasten in 
this way, as if it belonged to the same class of verbs with 
to think, to believe, to suppose, to imagine, to say, to as- 
sert, to affirm, to declare, to swear, to convince, to inform, 
to remember, to forget, etc., the distinction of which seems 
to be that they are all significant either of an operation 
performed by, or at least with the aid of, or of an effect 
produced upon, the mind. 

674. Octavius, lead your battle softly on. — Vid. 671. 

674. Upon the left hand of the even field. — Does this 
mean the smooth or level ground ? Or is not " the even 
field" rather to be understood as meaning the even 
ranks, the army as it stands before any part of it has be- 
gun to advance, presenting one long unbroken line of 
front ? I am not aware, however, of any other instance 
of such an application of the term field, unless it may 
be thought that we have one afterwards in the last line but 
one of the present Play : — " So, call the field to rest." 

675. Keep thou the left. — Eitson remarks; — "The 
tenor of the conversation evidently requires us to read 
your He means, apparently, that you and your are the 
words used elsewhere throughout the conversation. But 
he forgets that the singular pronoun is peculiarly em- 
phatic in this line, as being placed in contrast or opposi- 



sc. 1.] Julius oesar. 323 

tion to the 1. It is true, however, that thou and you 
were apt to be mistaken for one another in old handwrit- 
ing from the similarity of the characters used for th and 
y, which is such that the printers have in many cases 
been led to represent the one by the other, giving us, for 
instance, ye for the, yereof or y r of for thereof, etc.* 

676. Why do you cross me in this exigent. — This is 
Shakespeare's word for what we now call an exigence, or 
exigency. Both forms, however, were already in use in 
his day. Exigent, too, as Xares observes, appears to have 
then sometimes borne the sense of extremity or end, which 
is a very slight extension of its proper import of great or 
extreme pressure. 

678. Drum, etc. — " Lucilius, Titinius, Messala, and 
Others " is a modern addition to the heading here. 

680. Shall we give sign of tattle ? — "We should now 
say " give signal" 

681. We will answer on their charge. — "We will wait 
till they begin to make their advance. 

681. Make forth. — To make, a word which is still used 

* This confusion in writing between the th and the y is, I have 
little doubt, what has given rise to such forms of expression as " The 
more one has, the more he would have," " The more haste, the less 
speed," etc. It is admitted that the the here cannot be the common 
definite article. Vid. Latham, Eng. Lang. 239, 264, 282. Neither 
in French nor in Italian is any article used in such cases. But it is 
the German that shows us what the word really is. " Je mehr einer 
hat, je mehr will er haben" is literally li Ever more one has, ever more 
he would have." And je represented according to the English system 
of spelling is ye. This is apparently what the pedantry of the book 
language, misled by the ignorance of transcribers, has perverted into 
our modern the. Je (or ye) is in fact the same word with our still not 
unfamiliar aye, always. Very probably it is also the same with yea, 
the adverb of affirmation. Always, or an equivalent term, would be in 
most cases a natural enough expression of affirmation or assent. In 
the word every, again, or every e, as it was anciently spelled, we have 
perhaps the opposite process of the conversion of the into ye ; for the 
English "ever-?/ man" is, apparently, in form as well as in sense, the 
German li ]e-der mann." 

Y 2 



324 PHILOLOGICAL CO^^EOTARY. [ACT Y. 

with perhaps as much latitude and variety of application 
as any other in the language, was, like to do, employed 
formerly in a number of ways in which it has now ceased 
to serve us. Nares arranges its obsolete senses under seven 
heads, no one of which, however, exactly comprehends 
the sense it bears in the present expression. To make 
forth is to step forward. In preceding editions I had 
hastily assumed that Antony's " Make forth ; the generals 
would have some words " was addressed to the troops, in 
which case Make forth would be a command to them to 
advance against the enemy. Yet Antony, it was observed, 
had just opposed the proposition of Octavius to give the 
signal of battle, and declared his determination not to 
move till the enemy should make their charge. I have 
to thank the writer of a communication dated from 
Victoria, in New South Wales, for calling my attention 
to what is probably, after all, the sense in which the passage 
is commonly understood, and at any rate approves itself 
to be the true sense as soon as it is suggested. What 
Antony says is addressed, not to the troops, but to 
Octavius ; his meaning is, Let us go forward ; the 
generals — Brutus and Cassius — would hold some parley 
with us. 

687. The posture of your blows are yet unknown. — This 
is the reading of all the old copies. The grammatical 
irregularity is still common. " Is yet " is the correction 
of Mr Collier's MS. annotator. One would be inclined 
rather to suspect the word posture. It seems a strange 
word for what it is evidently intended to express. 

690. Whilst damned Casca. — This is the reading of all 
the Polios. Mr Collier has While. 

690. Struck Ccesar on the neck. — you flatterers ! — 
The word in the old text is strook (as in 348) . There is 
the common prosodical irregularity of a superfluous short 
syllable. Vid. 601. 

691. Flatterers ! — Now, Brutus, thank yourself — The 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C-ESAR. 325 

prosodical imperfection of this line consists in the want 
of the first syllable. It is a hemistich consisting of four 
feet and a half. 

692. The proof of it. — That is, the proof of our argu- 
ing. And by the proof must here be meant the arbitre- 
ment of the sword to which it is the prologue or prelude . 
It is by that that they are to prove what they have been 
arguing or asserting. 

692. Look ; I draw a sword, etc. — It is perhaps as well 
to regard the Look as a hemistich (of half a foot) ; but in 
tke original edition it is printed in the same line with 
what follows. 

692. Never, till Caesar's three and thirty wounds. — Theo- 
bald changed this to "three and twenty" — "from the 
joint authorities," as he says, " of Appian, Plutarch, and 
Suetonius." And he may be right in believing that the 
error was not Shakespeare's. The "thirty," however, 
escapes the condemnation of Mr Collier's MS. annotator. 

692. Save added slaughter to the sword of traitors. — 
This is not very satisfactory ; but it is better, upon the 
whole, than the amendment adopted by Mr Collier on the 
authority of his MS. annotator — " Have added slaughter 
to the word of traitor ;" — which would seem to be an ad- 
mission on the part of Octavius (impossible in the cir- 
cumstances) that Brutus and Cassius were as yet free 
from actual treasonable slaughter, and traitors only in 
word or name. 

693. Ccesar, thou canst not die by traitors' hands. — In 
the standard Variorum edition, which is followed by 
many modern reprints, this line is strangely given as 
" Caesar, thou canst not die by traitors." It is right in 
all Mr Knight's and Mr Collier's editions. 

695. O, if thou wert the noblest of thy strain. — Strain, 
or strene, is stock or race. The word is used several 
times by Shakespeare in this sense, and not only by 
Chaucer and Spenser, but even by Dryden, Waller, and 



326 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT V. 

Prior. The radical meaning seems to be anything stretched 
out or extended, hence a series either of progenitors, or 
of words or musical notes or sentiments. 

695. TJwu could 'st not die more "honorable. — This is not 
Shakespeare's usual form of expression, and we may be 
allowed to suspect that he actually wrote honorably (or 
honour ablie) . 

698. The original stage direction is, "Exit Octavius, 
Antony, and Army ." 

700. Ho ! Lucilius ; etc. — This is given as one verse 
in the original, and nothing is gained by printing the 
So ! in another line by itself, as the modern editors do. 
The verse is complete except that it wants the first 
syllable, — a natural peculiarity of an abrupt commence- 
ment or rejoinder. So in 691. — In the original edition 
this speech is followed by the stage direction " Lucillius 
and Messala stand forth ; " and there is no other after 
701. 

704. As this very day. — We are still familiar with this 
form of expression, at least in speaking. We may under- 
stand it to mean As is, or as falls, this very day; or 
rather, perhaps, as if, or as it were, this very day. 

704. On our former ensign. — Former is altered to 
■forward, it seems, by Mr Collier's MS. annotator; and 
the correction ought probably to be accepted. Former 
would hardly be the natural word unless it were intend- 
ed to be implied that there were only two ensigns or 
standards. 

704. Who to Philippi here consorted us. — Shakespeare's 
usual syntax is to consort with ; but he has consort as an 
active verb in other passages as well as here. 

704. This morning are they fled away, and gone. — Vid. 
374. 

704. As we were sicJcly prey. — As if we were. — Vid. 57. 

706. To meet all perils.— So in the First Folio. The 
other Folios havepmZ. 



SC. 1.] JULIUS C^SAB. 327 

708. Lovers in peace. — Vid. 260. 

708. But, since the affairs of men rest still uncertain. — 
"Rests still incertaine" is the reading in the original 
edition. 

708. Let's reason, with the worst that may befall. — The 
abbreviation let's had not formerly the vulgar or slovenly 
air which is conceived to unfit it now for dignified composi- 
tion. We have had it twice in Brutus' s impressive ad- 
dress, 187. Shakespeare, however, does not frequently 
resort to it, — rather, one would say, avoids it. — To befall 
as a neuter or intransitive verb is nearly gone out both 
in prose and verse ; as is also to fall in the same sense, 
as used by Brutus in the next speech. 

709. Limn by the rule, etc. — The pointing of this 
passage in the early editions is amusing : — 

"Even by the rule of that Philosophy, 
By which I did blame Cato, for the death 
Which he did give himselfe, I know not how : 
But I do find it," etc. 

The construction plainly is, I know not how it is, but 
I do find it, by the rule of that philosophy, etc., cowardly 
and vile. The common pointing of the modern editors, 
which completely separates "I know not how," etc., 
from what precedes, leaves the " by the rule " without 
connexion or meaning. It is impossible to suppose that 
Brutus can mean " I am determined to do by the rule of 
that philsophy," etc. 

709. The term of life. — That is, the termination, the 
end, of life. The common reading is "the time of life," 
which is simply nonsense ; term is the emendation of Mr 
Collier's MS. annotator, and the same emendation had 
also been made conjecturally by Capell, though it failed 
to obtain the acquiescence of subsequent editors. For 
to prevent see 147 and 161. " To prevent the term of life" 
says Mr Collier {Notes and Emendations, 403), " means, as 



328 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEISTABY. [ACT T. 

Malone states, to anticipate the end of life ; but still he 
strangely persevered in printing time for term" Did not 
Mr Collier himself do the same thing ? 

709. To stay the "providence of those high powers. — To 
stay is here to await, not, as the word more commonly 
means, to hinder or delay. — " Some high powers " is the 
common reading ; those is the correction of Mr Collier's 
MS. annotator, and might almost have been assumed on 
conjecture to be the true word. 

711* J¥b, Cassius, no : etc. — There has been some con- 
troversy about the reasoning of Brutus in this dialogue. 
Both Steevens and Malone conceive that there is an in- 
consistency between what he here says and his previous 
declaration of his determination not to follow the example 
of Cato. But how did Cato act ? He slew himself that 
he might not witness and outlive the fall of Utica. This 
was, merely " for fear of what might fall," to anticipate the 
end of life. It did not follow that it would be wrong, in 
the opinion of Brutus, to commit suicide in order to 
escape any certain and otherwise inevitable calamity or 
degradation, such as being led in triumph through the 
streets of Eome by Octavius and Antony. 

It is proper to remark, however, that Plutarch, upon 
whose narrative the conversation is founded, makes 
Brutus confess to a change of opinion. Here is the 
passage, in the Life of Brutus, as translated by Sir Thomas 
North : — " Then Cassius began to speak first, and said : 
The gods grant us, O Brutus, that this day we may win 
the field, and ever after to live all the rest of our life 
quietly, one with another. But, sith the gods have so 
ordained it, that the greatest and chiefest [things] 
amongst men are most uncertain, and that, if the battle 
fall out otherwise to-day than we wish or look for, we 
shall hardly meet again, what art thou then determined 
to do ? to fly ? or die ? Brutus answered him : Being 
yet but a young man, and not over greatly experienced 



SC. 2.] JULIUS C^ESAE. 829 

in the world, I trust [trusted'] (I know not how) a 
certain rule of philosophy, by the which I did greatly 
blame and reprove Cato for killing of himself, as being no 
lawful nor godly act touching the gods, nor, concerning 
men, valiant ; not to give place and yield to divine Provi- 
dence, and not constantly and patiently to take what- 
soever it pleaseth him to send us, but to draw back and 
ny. But, being now in the midst of the danger, I am 
of a contrary mind. For, if it be not the will of G-od 
that this battle fall out fortunate for us, I will look no 
more for hope, neither seek to make any new supply for 
war again, but will rid me of this miserable world, and 
content me with my fortune. For I gave up my life for 
my country in the Ides of March ; for the which I shall 
live in another more glorious world." 

This compared with the scene in the Play affords a 
most interesting and instructive illustration of the manner 
in which the great dramatist worked in such cases, 
appropriating, rejecting, adding, as suited his purpose, 
but refining or elevating everything, though sometimes 
by the slightest touch, and so transmuting all into the 
gold of poetry. 

711. Must end tliat worfc tlie ides of llarcli "begun. — 
Begun is the word in the old editions. Mr Collier has 
began. The three last Folios all have " that Ides of 
March begun." 

SCENE IL— The same. The Field of Battle. 
Alarum. — Enter Brutus and Messala. 

714. Bru. Ride, ride, Messala, ride, and give these bills 

Unto tbe legions on the other side : [Loud Alarum. 

Let them set on at once : for I perceive 

But cold demeanour in Octavius' wing, 

And sudden push gives them the overthrow. 

Ride, ride, Messala : let them all come down. Exeunt 



330 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT T. 

714. Give these bills. — These billets, as we should now 
say; but Shakespeare takes the word which he found 
in North's Plutarch : — " In the meantime Brutus, that 
led the right wing, sent little bills to the colonels and 
captains of private bands, in which he wrote the word of 
the battle." 

As in all other cases throughout the Play, the notices 
of the locality of what are here called the Second and 
Third Scenes are modern additions to the old text, in 
which there is no division into scenes. The stage direc- 
tions in regard to alarums, entries, etc., are all in the 
First Folio. 

714. But cold demeanour in Octavius* wing. — The ori- 
ginal text has " Octavio's wing." In 716, however, it is 
Octavius. 

SCENE III.— -The same. Another part of the field. 
Alanims. — Enter Cassius and Titinius. 

715. Cas. 0, look, Titinius, look, the villains fly! 
Myself have to mine own turned enemy : 
This ensign here of mine was turning back ; 

I slew the coward, and did take it from him. 

716. Tit, Cassius, Brutus gave the word too early ; 
"Who, having some advantage on Octavius, 

Took it too eagerly ; his soldiers fell to spoil, 
Whilst we by Antony are all enclosed. 

Enter Pindarus. 

717. Pin. Fly further off, my lord, fly further off; 
Mark Antony is in your tents, my lord ! 

Ply therefore, noble Cassius, fly far off. 

Cas. This hill is far enough. Look, look, Titinius ; 
Are those my tents, where I perceive the fire ? 

Tit. They are, my lord. 
720. Cas. Titinius, if thou lov'st me, 

Mount thou my horse, and hide thy spurs in him, 
Till he have brought thee up to yonder troops 
And here again ; that I may rest assured, 
Whether yond troops are friend or enemy. 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CJESAE. 331 

Tit. I will be here again even with a thought. [Exit. 

722. Cas. Go, Pmdanis, get higher on that hill; 
My sight was ever thick ; regard Titinius, 
And tell me what thou not'st about the field. — 

[Exit Pixdarus. 
This day I breathed first : time is come round, 
And, where I did begin, there shall I end ; 
My life is run his compass. — Sirrah, what news ? 

Pin. [Above] . my lord ! 

Cas. What news ? 

725. Pin. Titinius is enclosed round about 

With horsemen, that make to him on the spur ; — 

Yet he spurs on. — Now they are almost on him. 

Now, Titinius ! — 

Now some light : — 0, he lights too : — 

He's ta'en ; — and, hark ! [Shout. 

They shout for joy. 

726. Cas. Come down ; behold no more. 
0, coward that I am, to live so long, 

To see my best friend ta'en before my face 

Enter Pindartjs. 

Come hither, sirrah : 

In Parthia did I take thee prisoner ; 

And then I swore thee, saving of thy life, 

That, whatsoever I did bid thee do, 

Thou should'st attempt it. Come now, keep thine oath ! 

Now be a freeman : and with this good sword, 

That ran through Caesar's bowels, search this bosom. 

Stand not to answer : Here, take thou the hilts ; 

And when my face is covered, as 'tis now, 

Guide thou the sword. — Caesar, thou art revenged, 

Even with the sword that killed thee. [Dies. 

Pin. So, I am free ; yet would not so have been, 
Durst I have done my will. Cassius ! 
Far from this country Pindarus shall run, 
Where never Eoman shall take note of him. [Exit. 

Be-enter Titinius, with Messala. 

728. Mes. It is but change, Titinius ; for Octavius 
Is overthrown by noble Brutus' power, 
As Cassius' legions are by Antony. 

Tit. These tidings will well comfort Cassius. 



332 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT V 

Mes. Where did you leave him ? 
Tit. All disconsolate, 
With Pindarus his bondman, on this hill. 
Mes. Is not that he, that lies upon the ground ? 
Tit. He lies not like the living. my heart ! 
Mes. Is not that he ? 

735. Tit. No, this was he, Messala ; 

But Cassius is no more. — setting sun ! 

As in thy red rays thou dost sink to night, 

So in his red blood Cassius' day is set ; 

The sun of Borne is set ! Our day is gone ; 

Clouds, dews, and dangers come ; our deeds are done ! 

Mistrust of my success hath done this deed. 

736. Mes. Mistrust of good success hath done this deed. 
hateful Error ! Melancholy's child ! 

Why dost thou show to the apt thoughts of men 
The things that are not ? Error, soon conceived, 
Thou never com'st unto a happy birth, 
But kill'st the mother that engendered thee. 
Tit. What, Pindarus ! Where art thou, Pindarus ? 
Mes. Seek him, Titinius : whilst I go to meet 
The noble Brutus, thrusting this report 
Into his ears : I may say, thrusting it ; 
For piercing steel, and darts envenomed, 
Shall be as welcome to the ears of Brutus 
As tidings of this sight. 
739. Tit. Hie you, Messala, 

And I will seek for Pindarus the while. [Exit Messala. 

Why didst thou send me forth, brave Cassius ? 

Did I not meet thy friends ? and did not they 

Put on my brows this wreath of victory, 

And bid me give it thee ? Didst thou not hear their shouts ? 

Alas, thou hast misconstrued everything. 

But hold thee, take this garland on thy brow ; 

Thy Brutus bid me give it thee, and I 

Will do his bidding. — Brutus, come apace, 

And see how I regarded Cains Cassius. — 

By your leave, gods : — This is a Roman's part : 

Come, Cassius' sword, and find Titinius' heart. [Dies. 

Alarum. — Re-enter Messala, with Beutus, young Cato, 
Steato, Yolumnius, and Lucilius. 

Bru. Where, where, Messala, doth his body lie ? 



SC. 3.] JULIUS CiESAR. 333 

741. Mes. Lo, yonder ; and Titinius mourning it 
Bru. Titinius' face is upward. 
Cato. He is slain. 
744. Bru. Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet ! 

Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords 

In our own proper entrails. [Low alarums. 

7&5.»Cato. Brave Titinius ! 

Look, whe'r he have not crowned dead Cassius ! 
746. Bru. Are yet two Komans living such as these ? — 

The last of all the Romans, fare thee well ! 

It is impossible that ever Rome 

Should breed thy fellow. — Friends, I owe moe tears 

To this dead man, than you shall see me pay. — 

I shall find time, Cassius, I shall find time. — 

Come, therefore, and to Thassos send his body ; 

His funerals shall not be in our camp, 

Lest it discomfort us. — Lucilius, come ; — 

And come, young Cato ; let us to the field. — 

Labeo, and Flavins, set our battles on : — 

'Tis three o'clock ; and, Romans, yet e'er night 

We shall try fortune in a second fight. [Exeunt. 

715. Tins ensign here of mine was turning hack. — Here 
the term ensign may almost be said to be used with the 
double meaning of both the standard and the standard- 
bearer. 

716. Took it too eagerly. — Followed his advantage too 
eagerly. — The prosody of this line, with its two super- 
fluous syllables, well expresses the hurry and impetuosity 
of the speaker. 

717. Fly farther off, etc. — This is the reading of the 
old editions. Mr Collier, as usual, has farther. Further 
and farther correspond to forth and far, which, however, 
{Vid. 45) are only diverse forms of the same original word, 

feor or forth. Accordingly here, in the next line but one, 
we have " Cassius, ftyfar off." 

720. Whether yond troops. — Vid. 65. 

722. Go, Findarus, get higher on that hill. — This is the 
reading of the First Folio ; all the others have " get 
hither." The stage direction "Exit Findarus" is modern. 



334 PHILOLOGICAL COMMEKTAEY. [ACT Y. 

722. TJiis dag I breathed first. — Compare this expres- 
sion with what we have in 704 : — " As this very day Was 
Cassius born." 

722. Time is come round. . . . My life is run his com- 
pass. — Vid. 374. 

722. Sirrah, what news ? — The expressive effect of the 
break in the even flow of the rhythm produced by the 
superfluous syllable here, and the vividness with which it 
brings before us the sudden awakening of Cassius from 
his reverie, startled, we may suppose, by some sign of 
agitation on the part of Pindarus, will be felt if we will 
try how the line would read with " Sir, what news ? " 

725. Titinius is enclosed round about, etc. — The me- 
trical arrangement here given is the same that we have 
in the Eirst Folio. In many modern editions the follow- 
ing new disposition of the lines is substituted, the contri- 
vance of Steevens or some one of the other editors of the 
latter part of the last century : — 

" Titinius is 
Enclosed round about with horsemen, that 
Make to him on the spur ; — yet he spurs on. — 
Now they are almost on him : now, Titinius ! 
Now some light : — 0, he lights too :— he's ta'en ; and, hark ! 
They shout for joy." 

This alteration (made without notice) improves nothing, 
but seriously injures nearly every line over which it 
extends. And it also gives us a different prosodical 
manner from that wmich prevails throughout the present 
Play. 

725. With horsemen that maJce to him on the spur. — 
One of the applications of the verb to make which we 
have now lost. — Vid. 681. 

725. Now, Titinius ! Now some light : 0, he lights too. 
— It may be doubted whether the verb to light or alight 
have any connexion with either the substantive or the 



sc. 3.] JULIUS CJSSAB. 335 

adjective light. There evidently was, however, in that 
marvellous array in which the whole world of words was 
marshalled in the mind of Milton : — 

" So, besides 
Mine own that bide upon me, all from me 
Shall with a fierce reflux on me redound ; 
On me, as on their natural centre, light 
Heavy'"' — Far. Lost, x. 741. 

The prosodical irregularity of the present line is not 
greater than that of the " Now some light : 0, he lights 
too : — he's ta'en ; and, hark !" of the other arrangement. 
In the original text, " He's ta'en " stands in a line by itself, 
as frequently happens in that edition with words that 
really belong to the preceding verse, and possibly, not- 
withstanding their detached position, were intended to be 
represented as belonging to it. 

726. Take thou the hilts. — Formerly the hilts was 
rather more common than the hilt. Shakespeare uses 
both forms. Hilt is an Original English word, and is 
connected, apparently, with healdan, to hold. 

726. Even with the sword that 'killed thee. — Vid. 363. 
— The stage directions, Dies and Exit, are modern; 
and for "Re-enter Titinius, with Messala" the old copies 
have "Enter" etc. 

728. It is hut change.— The battle is only a succession of 
alternations or vicissitudes. 

735. No, this was he, Messala. — With the emphasis on 
ivas. 

735. As in thy red rays thou dost sink to night. — The 
to night here seems to be generally understood as mean- 
ing this night. Both Mr Collier and Mr Knight print 
" to-night." But surely a far nobler sense is given to 
the words by taking sink to night to be an expression of 
the same kind with sink to rest or sink to sleep. The 



3S6 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTAEY. [ACT V. 

colourless dulness of the coming night is contrasted with 
the red glow in which the luminary is descending. " O 
setting sun, Thou dost sink" meaning simply thou dost 
set, is not much in Shakespeare's manner. Besides, we 
hardly say, absolutely, that the sun sinks, whether we 
mean that it is setting or only that it is descending. And 
the emphasis given by the to-nigJit to the mere expression 
of the time seems uncalled-for and unnatural. There is 
no trace of a hyphen in the old copies. 

735, 736. Mistrust of my success, etc. — These two 
lines may show us that the word success was not yet 
when Shakespeare wrote quite fixed in the sense which 
it now bears. It is plain that success simply was not 
understood to imply all that was conveyed by the ex- 
pression good success. By " mistrust of my success " 
Titinius must be interpreted as meaning no more than 
mistrust, doubt, or apprehension of what I had met with ; 
in conformity with what he afterwards says in apostro- 
phizing Cassius, " Alas, thou hast misconstrued every- 
thing."— rid. 229. 

736. O hateful Error ! Melancholy* s child ! — Error and 
Melancholy are personages, and the words are proper 
names, here. 

736. To the apt thoughts of men. — Vid. 345. 

739. Hie you, Messala.—Vid. 139. 

739. And I zvill seek for Pindarus the while. — We 
are still familiar enough with the while, for meanwhile, 
or in the meantime, in poetry, in which so many phrases 
not of the day are preserved; but the expression no 
longer forms part of what can properly be called our 
living English. 

The stage direction, " "Exit Messala," is modern. 

739. And hid me give it thee ? etc. — This is no Alex- 
andrine, but only a common heroic verse with two super- 
numerary short syllables. 



80. 3.] JULIUS C-£SAK. 337 

739. But hold thee. — Equivalent to car modern But 
hold, or but stop. 

739. Brutus, come apace. — Apace is literally at, or 
rather on, pace ; that is, by the exertion of all your power 
of pacing. Vid. 65. 

739. By your leave, gods. — lid. 353. The stage di- 
rection that follows this speech in the original edition 
is :— ' ; Alarum. Hater Brutus, Jlessala.yong Cato, Strato, 
Volumnius, and Lucillius" 

741. Titinius mourning it. An unusual construction 
of the verb to mourn in this sense. "We speak commonly 
enough of mourning the death of a person, or any other 
thing that may have happened; we might even perhaps 
speak of mourning the person who is dead or the thing that 
is lost; but we only mourn over the dead body. So with 
lament. "We lament the death or the less, the man or 
the thing ; but not the body out of which the spirit is 
gone. 

744. In our own proper entrails. — That is, into, as we 
should now sav. Vid. 122. 

745. Look whe'r lie have not. — That is, " whether he 
have not." Vid. 16. The word is here again printed 
' ; where " in the original edition. 

746. Tlie last of all the Romans. — This is the reading 
of all the Folios ; and it is left untouched by ^-Tr Collier's 
ATS. corrector. " Thou last " is the conjectural emenda- 
tion of Eowe. 

749. I owe moe tears. — Jloe (or mo) is the word as it 
stands in both the First and the Second Folio. Vid. 158. 

746. To Thassos send his hody.—T/iassos is misprinted 
Tharsus in all the Folios, and the error escaped both Eowe 
and Pope. Xor does Mr Collier state that it is cor- 
rected by his IMS. annotator. Thassos was first substi- 
tuted by Theobald, who reasons thus : — i; Tharsus was a 
town of Cilicia in Asia AEinor ; and is it probable that 
Brutus could think of sending Cassius'a body thither out 

z 



338 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT T. 

of Thrace, where they were now encamped ? Thassos, on 
the contrary, was a little isle lying close upon Thrace, 
and at but a small distance from Philippi, to which the 
body might very commodiously be transported. Vid. 
Plutarch, Appian, Dion Cassius, etc." It is sufficient to 
say that Thassos is the place mentioned by Plutarch (in 
his life of Brutus) as that to which the body was sent to 
be interred, and that the name, as Steevens has noted, 
is correctly given in North's translation, which Shake- 
speare had before him. 

746. His funerals. — As we still say nuptials, so they 
formerly often said funerals. So funerailles in Prench 
smifunera in Latin. On the other hand, Shakespeare's 
word is always nuptial. Nuptials occurs only in one 
passage of the very corrupt text of Pericles : — " We'll 
celebrate their nuptials " (v. 3), and in one other passage 
of Othello as it stands in the Quarto, — " It is the celebra- 
tion of his nuptials (ii. 2) — where, however, all the other 
old copies have nuptial, as elsewhere. 

746. Labeo and Flavius, etc. — In the First Polio, 
" Labio and Flavio ; " in the others, " Labio and Flavius" 

Por " set our battles on" see 669. 

746. 'Tis three o'clock. — In the original edition, " three 
a clocke." Vid. 85. 



SCENE IV.— Another part of the Field. 

Alarum. — Enter, fighting, Soldiers of both Armies ; then Bkutus, 
Cato, Lucilius, and others. 

Bru. Yet, countrymen, 0, yet hold up your heads ! 
748. Cato. "What bastard doth not ? Who will go with me ? 
I will proclaim my name about the field : — 
I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho ! 
A foe to tyrants, and my country's friend. 
I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho ! [Charges the enemy. 

Bru. And I am Brutus, Marcus Brutus, I ; 



SC. 4.] JULIUS CiESAE. 339 

Brutus, my country's friend ; know me for Brutus. 

[Exit, charging the enemy. Cato is overpowered, and falls 
Lucil. young and noble Cato, art thou down ? 
Why, now thou diest as bravely as Titinius ; 
And may'st be honoured being Cato's son. 

1 Sold. Yield, or thou diest. 
752. Lucil. Only I yield to die : 

There is so much, that thou wilt kill me straight ; 

\Offering money. 
Kill Brutus, and be honoured in his death. 
7o3. 1 Sold. We must not. — A noble prisoner ! 

2 Sold. Boom, ho ! Tell Antony, Brutus is ta'en. 
755. 1 Sold. I'll tell the news. — Here comes the general : — 

Enter Antony. 

Brutus is ta'en, Brutus is ta'en, my lord. 

Ant. Where is he ? 

Lucil. Safe, Antony ; Brutus is safe enough : 
I dare assure thee, that no enemy 
Shall ever take alive the noble Brutus : 
The gods defend him from so great a shame ! 
When you do find him, or alive or dead, 
He will be found like Brutus, like himself. 
758. Ant, This is not Brutus, friend ; but, I assure you,, 
A prize no less in worth : keep this man safe ; 
Give him all kindness : I had rather have 
Such men my friends than enemies. Go on, 
And see whe'r Brutus be alive or dead : 
And bring us word unto Octavius' tent 
How everything is chanced. \_Exeunt. 

All that we have in the Folios for the heading of this 
Scene is, " Alarum. Enter Brutus, Messala, Cato, Lu- 
cilius, and Flavins." And the only stage directions that 
we have throughout the Scene are " Enter Soldiers, and 
fight" immediately before the speech of Brutus (747), 
and the " Exeunt " at the end. 

748. What bastard doth not?—Vid. 177. 

752. There is so much, that thou wilt hill me 
straight. The evident meaning of these words has 

z 2 



340 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT Y. 

strangely escaped the acuteness of Warburton, whose 
interpretation (1747) is : — " So much resistance still on 
foot, that thou wilt choose to rid me out of the way, 
that thou mayst go, without the embarras of prisoners, to 
the assistance of thy friends who still want it." The true 
explanation is very well given by Heath in replying to 
this (in his Revised of Shakespeare* s Text, 1765) : — " There 
is so much money for thee, on condition that thou wilt 
kill me straight." 

753. We must not. — A nolle prisoner ! — The original 
edition places the entry of Antony immediately after this 
speech. 

755. Pll tell the news. — This is the conjectural emend- 
ation of Theobald. All the Folios, and also both Eowe 
and Pope, have thee for the. Mr Collier adopts the 
emendation. 

758. And see wheW Brutus he alive or dead. — Vid. 16 
and 745. It is " where " again in the original text. 

758. How everything is chanced. — Vid. 69 and 374. 

SCENE V.— Another part of the Field. 
Enter Brutus, Dardanius, Clitus, Strato, and Volumnius. 

Bru. Come, poor remains of friends, rest on this rock. 

Cli. Statilius showed the torch-light ; but, my lord, 
He came not back ; he is or ta'en, or slain. 
761. Bru. Sit thee down, Clitus : Slaying is the word ; 

It is a deed in fashion. Hark thee, Clitus. — [Whispering. 

Cli. What, I, my lord ? No, not for all the world. 

Bru. Peace, then; no words. 

Cli. I'll rather kill myself. 

Bru. Hark thee, Dardanius ! [Whispers him. 

Bar. Shall I do such a deed? 

Cli. 0, Dardanius! 

Bar. 0, Clitus ! 

Cli. What ill request did Brutus make to thee ? 

Bar. To kill him, Clitus. Look, he meditates. 
771. Cli. Now is that noble vessel full of grief, 
That it runs over even at his eyes. 



SC. 5.] JULIUS C^ISAR. 341 

Bru. Come hither, good Volumnius ; list a word. 
Vol. What says my lord ? 
774. Bru. Why, this, Volumnius : 

The ghost of Caesar hath appeared to me 
Two several times by night : at Sardis, once ; 
And, this last night, here in Philippi fields. 
I know my hour is come. 
Vol. Not so, my lord. 
776. Bru. Nay, I am sure it is, Volumnius. 

Thou see'st the world, Volumnius, how it goes ; 

Our enemies have beat us to the pit : [Low Alarums. 

It is more worthy to leap in ourselves 

Then tarry till they push us. Good Volumnius, 

Thou know'st, that we two went to school together ; 

Even for that our love of old, I pr'ythee, 

Hold thou my sword hilts, whilst I run on it. 

Vol. That's not an office for a friend, my lord. [Alarum still. 

778. Cli. Fly, fly, my lord ; there is no tarrying here. 

779. Bru. Farewell to you ; — and you ; — and you, Volumnius. — 
Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep ; 

Farewell to thee too, Strato. — Countrymen, 

My heart doth joy, that yet, in all my life, 

I found no man but he was true to me. 

I shall have glory by this losing day, 

More than Octavius, and Mark Antony, 

By this vile conquest shall attain unto. 

So, fare you well at once : for Brutus' tongue 

Hath almost ended his life's history : 

Night hangs upon mine eyes ; my bones would rest, 

That have but laboured to attain this hour. 

[Alarum. Cry within ; Fly, fly, fly. 

Cli. Fly, my lord, fly. 
781. Bru. Hence; I will follow. 

[Exeunt Clitus, Dardanius, and Volumnius. 
I pr'ythee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord : 
Thou art a fellow of a good respect ; 
Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it : 
Hold, then, my sword, and turn away thy face 
While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato ? 

Stra. Give me your hand first : Fare you well, my lord. 

Bru. Farewell, good Strato. — Caesar, now be still : 
I killed not thee with half so good a will. 

[He runs on his sword and dies 



342 



PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY. [ACT T. 



Alarum. — Retreat. Enter Octavrjs, Antony, Messala, 
Lucilius, and their Army. 

Oct. What man is that ? 

Mes. My master's man. — Strato, where is thy master ? 

Stra. Free from the "bondage you are in, Messala ; 
The conquerors can but make a fire of him : 
For Brutus only overcame himself, 
And no man else hath honour by his death. 

Lucil. So Brutus should be found. — I thank thee, Brutus, 
That thou hast proved Lucilius* saying true. 

788. Oct. All that served Brutus, I will entertain them. 
Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me ? 

789. Stra. Ay, if Messala will prefer me to you. 
Oct. Do so, good Messala. 

791. Mes. How died my master, Strato ? 

Stra. I held the sword, and he did run on it. 

793. Mes. Octavius, then take him to follow thee, 
That did the latest service to my master. 

794. Ant. This was the noblest Boman of them all : 
All the conspirators, save only he, 

Did that they did in envy of great Caesar ; 

He only, in a generous honest thought 

Of common good to all, made one of them. 

His life was gentle ; and the elements 

So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, 

And say to all the world, This was a man ! 

795. Oct. According to his virtue let us use him, 
With all respect and rites of burial. 
Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie, 
Most like a soldier, ordered honourably. — 
So, call the field to rest ; and let's away, 

To part the glories of this happy day. [Exemit. 

The heading of Scene V., with the locality, is, as usual, 
modern. 

761. Sit thee down. — In this common phrase, appar- 
ently, the neuter verb to sit has taken the place of the 
active to seat. Or perhaps we ought rather to say that 
both in Sit thee and in Hark thee, which we have in the 
next line and again in 765, thee has usurped the function 



sc. 5.] JULirs cjesae. 343 

of thou. We have a similar irregularity in Fare (that is, 
go) thee well. — The marginal "Whispering" at this 
speech is modern ; and so is the " Whispers him " at 765. 

771. TJiat it runs over. — So that, as in 15. 

774. Here in Philip-pi fields. — A common enough form 
of expression ; as Chelsea Fields, Kensington Gardens. 
There is no need of an apostrophe to Fhilippi. 

776. Hold thou my sicord hilts. — Vid. 726. 

778. There is no tarrying here. — So in Macbeth, v. 5, 
" There is nor flying hence, nor tarrying here." The ex- 
pression is from JNTorth's Flutarch : — " Tolumnius denied 
his request, and so did many others. And, amongst the 
rest, one of them said, there was no tarrying for them 
there, but that they must needs fly." 

779. Farewell to you; — etc. — Mr Collier appends the 
stage direction, " Shaking hands severally." 

779. Farewell to thee too, Strato. — In all the Folios this 
stands ; — " Farewell to thee, to Strato." The correction 
is one of the many made by Theobald which have been 
universally acquiesced in. It appears to have escaped 
Mr Collier's MS. annotator. 

781. Hence ; I will follow. — This is the reading of all 
the old copies. Pope added thee, in order to make a com- 
plete line of the two hemistichs. — The " Fxeunt Clitus," 
etc., is modern. 

781. Thou art a fellow of a good respect. — Vid. 48. 

781. Tfiy life hath had some smatch of honour in it. — 
Smatch is only another form of smack, meaning taste. 
Smack is the word which Shakespeare commonly uses, 
both as noun and verb. 

In the early editions, the stage direction after the last 
speech of Brutus (783) is, simply, "Dies;" and in the 
Fntry that follows Antony is placed before Octavius, and 
"their Army" is " the Army." 

788. / icill entertain them. — Eeceive them into my 
service. 



344 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTAET. [ACT T. 

788. Wilt thou bestow thy time with me ? — Here is 
another sense of bestoiv, in addition to that in 139, which 
is now lost. Bestow thy time with me means give up thy 
time to me. 

789. If Messala will prefer me to you. — " To prefer" 
Reed observes, "seems to have been the established phrase 
for recommending a servant" And he quotes from The 
Ilerchant of Venice, ii. 2, what Bassanio says to Launce- 
lot,— - 

" Shylock, thy master, spoke with me this day, 
And hath preferred thee." 

But to prefer was more than merely to recommend. It 
was rather to transfer, or hand over ; as might be inferred 
even from what Octavius here rejoins, " Do so, good 
Messala." That it had come usually to imply also some- 
thing of promotion may be seen from what Bassanio goes 
on to say : 

— u if it be preferment 
To leave a rich Jew's service, to become 
The follower of so poor a gentleman." 

The sense of the verb to prefer that we have in Shake- 
speare continued current down to a considerably later 
date. Thus, Clarendon writes of Lord Cottington : — 
" His mother was a Stafford, nearly allied to Sir Edward 
Stafford ; . . . by whom this gentleman was brought up, 
. . . and by him recommended to Sir Eobert Cecil . . . ; 
who preferred him to Sir Charles Cornwallis, when he 
went ambassador into Spain ; where he remained for the 
space of eleven or twelve years in the condition of Secre- 
tary or Agent, without ever returning into England in all 
that time" {Hist., Book ociii.). 

At an earlier date, again, we have Bacon, in the Dedica- 
tion of the first edition of his Essays to his brother An- 
thony, thus writing: — Since they would not stay with 
their master, but would needs travail abroad, I have pre- 



SC. 5.] JULIUS CJ3SAR. 345 

ferred them to you, that are next myself, dedicating them, 
such as they are, to our love," &c. 

791. How died my master, Strato ? — So the First Folio. 
The Second, by a misprint, omits master \ The Third and 
Fourth have " my lord." 

793. Octavius, then take him, etc. — That is, accept or 
receive him from me. It is not, I request you to allow 
him to enter your service ; but I give him to you. Vid. 
789. 

794. lie only, in a generous nonest thought Of common 
good, etc. — We are indebted for this reading to Mr 
Collier's MS. annotator. It is surely a great improve- 
ment upon the old text — 

" He only in a general honest thought, 
And common good to all, made one of them." 

To act " in a general honest thought " is perhaps in- 
telligible, though barely so; but, besides the tautology 
which must be admitted on the common interpretation, 
what is to act in " a common good to all ? " 

794. Made one of them. — In this still familiar idiom made 
is equivalent to formed, constituted, and one must be con- 
sidered as the accusative governed by it. Fecit unum ex 
eis, or eorum (by joining himself to them). 

Here is the prose of Plutarch, as translated by North, 
out of which this poetry has been wrought : — " For it 
was said that Antonius spake it openly divers times, that 
he thought, that, of all them that had slain Caesar, there 
was none but Brutus only that was moved to it as think- 
ing the act commendable of itself; but that all the other 
conspirators did conspire his death for some private malice 
or envy that they otherwise did bear unto him." 

794. His life was gentle; and the elements, etc.-— This 
passage is remarkable from its resemblance to a passage 
in Drayton's poem of The Barons' Wars. Drayton's 
poem was originally published some years before the close 



346 PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY [ACT V. 

of the sixteenth century (according to Bitson, Bibl. Poet., 
under the title of " Mortemeriados. . . . Printed by J. U. 
for Matthew Lownes, 1596," 4to) ; but there is, it seems, 
^no trace of the passage in question in that edition. The 
first edition in which it is found is that of 1608, in which 
it stands thus : — 

" Such one lie was (of him we boldly say) 
In whose rich soul all sovereign powers did suit, 
In whom in peace the elements all lay 
So mixt, as none could sovereignty impute ; 
As all did govern, yet all did obey : 
His lively temper was so absolute, 
That 't seemed, when heaven his model first began, 
In him it showed perfection in a man." 

In a subsequent edition published in 1619 it is re- 
modelled as follows : — 

" He was a man (then boldly dare to say) 
In whose rich soul the virtues well did suit ; 
In whom so mixt the elements all lay 
That none to one could sovereignty impute ; 
As all did govern, so did all obey : 
He of a temper was so absolute, 
As that it seemed, when nature him began, 
She meant to show all that might be in man." 

Malone, who holds that Shakespeare's play of Julius 
Ccesar was probably produced about 1607, is inclined to 
think that Drayton was the copyist, even as his verses 
originally stood. " In the altered stanza," he adds, " he 
certainly was." Steevens, in the mistaken notion that 
Drayton's stanza as found in the edition of his Barons 9 
Wars published in 1619 had appeared in the original 
poem, published, as he conceives, in 1598, had supposed 
that Shakespeare had in this instance deigned to imitate 
or borrow from his contemporary. 

795. To part the glories of this happy day. — That is, 
to distribute to each man his due share in its glories. — 
The original stage direction is " Exeunt omnes" 



INDEX. 



a-, an-, 560. 

abide, 327- 

aboard, 65. 

aby, 327. 

addressed, 300. 

advantage, 358. 

afeard, 244. 

aim, 57. 

alderliefest, 54. 

alight, 725. 

alive, 65. 

all over, 175. 

aloft, 65. 

along by, 200. 

an, 15. 

and (an), 89,575. 

apace, 739. 

apparent, 194. 

approve, 147. 

apt, 345. 

aptitude j 345. 

are, 129, 560. 

arrive, 54. 

art (s.), 615. 

art (v.), 560. 

as, 44, 57, 177, 329, 

408, 704. 
as well, 56. 
ascended (is), 32i. 
aside, 65. 
assembly, 246. 
astir, 252. 
at, 508. 
Ate, 363. 
attempered, 562. 
augurer, 194, 
aweary, etc., 560. 
ay, 54, 530. 
ay me !, 279. 
aye, 675. 

bad, 349. 
bait, 529, 530. 
ban, 349. 
bane, 349. 



base, 147, 349. 
bastard, 177. 
bate, 529, 530. 
battle, 671. 
bay, 349, 529, 530. 
be, 560. 
be (are), 67. 
be-, 390, 460 % 
bear hard, 105. 
become, 390. 
been, 269. 
beest, 560. 
befall, 69, 708. 
behaviours, 45. 
beholden, 390. 
believe, 390. 
belike, 460. 
belong, 390. 
beloved, 390. 
beseech, 390. 
beshrew, 186. 
beside, 348. 
bestow, 139, 783. 
betimes, 669. 
betoken, 390. 
bid, 1. 
bills, 714. 
bloods, 56. 
bough, 349. 
bow, 349. 
break with, 1S2 
bring, 106. 
brook, 56. 
business, 496. 
bustle, 267. 
busy, 267. 
by, 124, 345. 

can, 1, 560. 
carrion. 177. 
cast, 122. 
cause, 1. 
cautel, 177. 
cautelous, 177. 
censor, 329. 



censorship, 329. 
censure, 329, 375. 
census, 329. 
ceremonies, 16, 194 
chance, 69. 
characters, 214. 
charm, 209. 
chew, 57- 
chide, 569. 
clean, 110. 
clever, 348. 
colour, 147 
come home, 104. 
comfort, 211. 
command, 279, 
commend, 279. 
commerce, 525. 
compact, 352. 
companion, 578. 
company, 578. 
con, 560. 
conceit, 142. 
conclude, 249. 
condemn to, 525. 
condition, 205. 
consort, 704. 
constant, 263, 310 
construct, 560. 
construe, 560. 
content, 519. 
continence, 54. 
contrite, 260. 
contrive, 260. 
council, 263, 498. 
counsel, 263, 498. 
countenance, 54. 
court, 305. 
courteous, 305. 
courtesies, 305. 
creature, 181. 
cunning, 560. 
curse, 186. 
curst, 186. 
curt'sies, 305. 



348 



INDEX. 



damage, 147. 

danger, 147. 

dare, 1. 

dear, 349, 560. 

dearth, 349. 

decent, 16. 

deck, 16. 

decorate, 16. 

deem, 329. 

degrees, 147. 

deliberate, 348. 

deliver, 348. 

dent, 426. 

desire, 307' 

die, 16. 

difference, 45. 

dint, 426. 

direct, 300. 

disserve, 525. 

distract, 590. 

distraught, 590. 

do, 1, 16, 147, 229, 

387, 503, 
doom, 329 v 
dotage, 305. 
dote, 305. 
dress, 300. 
drizzle, 233. 
drown, 128. 

early, 494. 
earn, 259. 
earnest, 259. 
-ed, 16, 246. 
either, 227. 
element, 130. 
emulation, 260. 
endure, 1. 
enforce, 377. 
enlarge, 519. 
ensign, 715. 
entertain, 788. 
envy, 187. 
ere, 494. 
errand, 494. 
errant, 494. 
erroneous, 494. 
error, 494. 
esteem, 57. 
every, 675. 
exigent, 676. 
exorcise, 221. 
expedition, 598, 

factious, 129. 



fall, 177, 359, 508, 70S. 
fantasv, 194. 
far, 48, 717. 
fare thee, 761. 
farther, 45, 717. 
fasten, 672. 
fault, 120, 143. 
favour, 54, 130, 160. 
favoured, 54. 
fear, 190, 244. 
fearful, 672. 
fellow, 578. 
feverous, 130. 
field, 674. 
fire, 346. 
firm, 107. 
fleer, 129. 
flourish, 283. 
fond, 305. 
fondling, 305. 
forbid, 1. 
force, 209. 
force (of), 620. 
fore, 45. 

foreign-built, 110. 
forth, 45, 717. 
fray, 267. 
freedom, 307. 
friend (to, at), 342. 
friends (friend), 353. 
from, 110, 194. 
funerals, 746. 
further, 45, 717. 

garden, 143. 
ge-, 390. 
general, 147. 
genius, 155. 
get me, 278. 
get thee gone, 261. 
give sign, 680. 
give way, 260. 
given, QQ. 
glare, 109. 
go along by, 200. 
go to, 531, 
gore, 426. 
greet, 242, 
griefs, 129, 436. 
grievances, 129. 
guess, 390 

had best, 469. 

had like, 57. 

had rather, 57, 551. 



hail, 241. 

hale, 241. 

hand (at, in, on), 508. 

handkerchief, 218. 

hap, 69. 

happen, 69. 

happy, 69. 

hark thee, 761. 

have, 634. 

havoc, 363. 

he, 54. 

health, 534. 

heap, 109. 

hear, 1. 

hearse, 422. 

heart's ease, 67. 

heir, 194. 

help, 1. 

hence, 625. 

her, 54. 

herd, 128. 

herself, 56. 

hie, 139. 

hilts, 726, 776. 

hind, 128. 

hinder, 161. 

himself, 56, 599. 

his, 54. 

hit (it), 54. 

home, 625. 

home-, 110. 

hour, 256. 

however, 103. 

hug, 139. [561. 

humour, 105, 205, 240, 

hurl, 233. 

hurtle, 233. 

1,54. 

I (me), 122. 
idle, 177. 
-ile, 25. 
improve, 186. 
in, 65, 122, 744. 
incorporate, 134. 
indirection, 551. 
-ing, 1. 
instance, 507 
insuppressive, 177. 
intend, 1. 
is, 560. 
it, 54. 
-ite, 25. 
i' the, 53. 
itching, 525. 



I^DEX. 



349 



its, 54. 
itself, 54, 56. 
-ins, 61, 502, 560. 

jealous, 50, 57. 
jig, 578. 
justle, 233. 

keep, 211. 
ken, 560. 
kerchief, 218. 
kin, 560. 
kind, 560. 
kindred. 560. 
king, 560. 
knave, 647. 
know, 560. 

lament, 741. 
lease, 363. 
leash, 363. 
let, 1, 363. 
let's, 708. 
liable, 67, 249. 
lief, 54. 
light, 725. 
like, 57, 85, 259. 
likely, 57. 
likes, 105. 
listen, 498. 
lover, 186, 260. 

main, 194. 

make, 1,681,725,794. 
make for, 295. 
make to, 295. 
manner, 45 
mass, 408. 
market, 525. 
marry, 78. 
mart, 525. 
masters, 403, 637. 
may, 1. 
me, 89, 471. 
mercantile, 25, 525. 
merchant, 525. 
merely, 45. 
mettle, 102. 
mind, 534. 
mistook, 46. 
moe, 158, 746. 
mourn, 741. 
must, 1. 
my, 89, 205. 
myself, 54, 56, 599. 



napery, 408. 
napkin, 408. 
neckerchief, 218. 
news, 590. 
nice, 524. 
niggard, 624. 
nor, 227. 
not, 181. 
nuptial, 746, 

observe, 539. 
occupation, 89. 
o'clock, 65. 
of, 50, 129. 
on, 50, 65. 
once, 613. 
o' nights, 65. 
only, 56. 
ope, 89. 
or, 227. 
orchard, 143. 
order, 355. 
o' the, 53. 
other, 78. 
others, 634. 
ought, 1. 
ourself, 56^ 
out, 8. 
over, 283. 
overwatched, 634. 
owe, 1. 
owed, 1. 
own, 1. 

palter, 177. 
paramour, 186. 
pass, 15. 
passion, 46. 
path, 161. 
patience, 46. 
perforce, 620. 
piety, 346. 
pious, 346. 
piteous, 346. 
pitiful, 346. 
pity, 346. 
plucked, 160. 
portent, 246. 
power, 127. 
prebend, 498. 
prefer, 789. 
prepare, 256. 
present, 57. 
pretend, 65. [709. 

prevent, 147, 161, 296, 



prick, 352, 491. 
proceed, 60. 
proceeding, 249. 
produce to, 355. 
promised forth, 97. 
proof, 147, 692. 
proper, 12, 45. 
provender, 498. 
puissant, 304. 

question, 377, 596. 
quick, 267. 
quite from, 194. 

rascal, 551. 
rathe, 54. 
rather, 54. 
recension, 329. 
redress, 300. 
regard, 37-5. 
remorse, 147. 
render, 249, 349, 371. 
repeal, 306. 
reprove, 186. 
resolved, 339. 
respect, 48, 375, 551. 
retentive, 126. 
rived, 107. 
Rome, 56. 
rostrum, 373. 
rote, 560. 
round, 147- 
ruminate, 57. 
rumour, 267. 

scandal, 50. 
scandalize, 50. 
see, 1. 
self, 54, 56. 
sennet, 39. 
sense, 498. 
separate, 444. 
set on, 225, 669. 
sever, 444. 
several, 444. 
shake, 349. 
shall, 1, 181, 238, 249, 

351, 358, 491, 620. 
she, 54. 
shew, 186. 
should, 56, 181, 238, 

551. 
shrew, 186. 
shrewd, 186, 343. 
shrewishness, 186 



350 



INDEX. 



sign, 680, 

sin, 16. 

sing, 16. 

-sion, 246. 

sirs, 637. 

sit thee, 761. 

sleek, 522. 

sleep, 363. 

slide, 522. 

slight, 494,522. 

slink, 522. 

slip, 363. 

slips, 363. 

sly, 522. 

sniatch, 781. 

so, 15, 44, 57, 147, 408. 

sooth, 268. 

sore, 186. 

sorrow, 186. 

sorry, 186. 

sort, 211. 

sound, 128. 

sour 186. 

speak, 647. 

stale, 50. 

state, 50. 

statue, 246. 

stay, 709. 

stirred, 252. 

strain, 695. 

strange-disposed, 110. 

strew, 186. 

stricken, 46, 253. 

struck, 46, 253. 

strucken, 253, 349. 

suceeed, 229. 

success, 229, 735, 736. 

such, 57, 177. 

sue, 283. 

suit, 283. 

suite, 283. 

swagger, 107. 

sway, 107, 353. 

sweet, 267. 

swing, 107. 



swoon, 82, 83, 128. 

tag-rae:, 87. 
taste, 498. 
tempered, 562. 
temple, 363. 
tenure, 599. 
terror, 190, 194. 
th and y, 675. 
than, 56, 575. 
that, 15, 44, 57, 147, 

177, 399. 
thatch, 16. 
the more, etc., 675. 
themselves, 56. 
then (than), 56. 
there's, 135. 
these, 57. 
these many, 486. 
thews, 124. 
thigh, 124. 
think, 147, 189. 
this, 57. 
this (time), 130. 
this present, 57. 
thou, 1. 

thunderstone, 120. 
thyself, 56. 
tide, 363. 
tidings, 590. 
time, 363. 
-tion, 246. 
to, 1, 57, 551, 634. 
toward, 53. 
true man, 87. 

unaccustomed, 194. 
undergo, 130. 
undeservers, 525. 
unmeritable, 494. 
upon, 589. 

viands, 498. 
vile, 575. 
villain, 186. 



virtue, 209. 
vouchsafe, 1. 

ware, 671. 

warn, 671. 

wary, 671. 

was, 560. 

wash, 333. 

wave, 107. 

weak, 267. 

weep, 16. 

weigh, 107. 

well, 504. 

were, wert, best, 469. 

when ? 143. 

whe'r, 16, 194, 745, 

758. 
which, 369, 377. 
while (the), 739. 
whiles, 67. 
whirl, 233. 
whit, 181. 
wicked, 267. 
wight, 181. 
will, 1, 181, 238, 249, 

491. 
wis, v. ywis. 
wit, 436, 561. 
with, 124, 345, 363, 

613. 
withhold, 399. 
worship, 504. 
worth, 504. 
would, 218. 
wrote, 46, 

y-, 390. 

ye, 345, 

yea, 675. 

yearn, 259. 

yon, yond, yonder, 65. 

you, 345. 

yourself, 56. 

ywis, 390. 



THE END. 



JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS. 



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